Basic chaplaincy course in the making

The Random House Dictionary of the English Language defines a chaplain as "an ecclesiastic attached to the chapel of a royal court, college, etc., or to a military unit," or "a person who says the prayer, invocation, etc. for an organization or at an assembly or gathering."

Students at Falls Creek encouraged to live out Scripture

DAVIS—Pretty sure that students don't talk about the Bible outside of church, leaders at Falls Creek Baptist Conference Center are using this year's theme to change that. Each week during two Morning Tabernacle Experiences (one for high school and one for middle school students), Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma youth specialists James Lankford, Andy Harrison, Norman Flowers and Todd Sanders emphasized Echo groups—friends who are already in Christ meeting to encourage one another.

Oklahoma

As far as the Cooperative Program is concerned, Doug Melton and Oklahoma City, Southern Hills are a perfect fit. Both "grew up" with the CP at the forefront. Melton said even as a small child attending Seminole, First, he recalls sitting in business meetings with his parents when the Cooperative Program was discussed and the importance of it was emphasized. "I remember hearing things like, 'How long has it been since we've raised CP?' or 'We're not going to cut CP,'" he said. "I was taught to make sure the Cooperative Program was protected, that cuts, if necessary, were made somewhere else." Melton said that was reinforced by the missionaries who came through the church and his understanding that the way they were funded was through the Cooperative Program. "I also remember being taught that our missionaries never have to ask for money, because the funds we give through our church goes to support them," he said. "I've always been a big fan of the Cooperative Program. God...

Like most other organizations, a Sunday School class or a small group has a life cycle that includes various stages of life. These stages can be identified on the chart to the right of this article. Listed below are the common stages of life for a Sunday School class. Stage One: Birth Every class experiences birth. Someone or some group of people at some point in time started the group. As a general rule, this stage involves high excitement and a degree of uncertainty. Faith and vision are high and very important. There is a lot of stress on the teacher to involve people and reach out to new members. Guests are being reached out to and are often friends and neighbors of members. Stage Two: Growth As a class grows, it moves from no longer being new to having some stability. People are becoming more familiar with each other. They are discovering the different gifts and talents of the group and, if done correctly, the skills of the class are beginning to be used. Class...

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." These are the words that define the Declaration of Independence. Simple, straightforward, yet powerful, words that sounded as a bugle call to action, drawing a line in the sand that would require years of hardship, loss and death. Unflinching in the face of the mighty British Army, the writers and their fellow colonists gave their all to give birth to the greatest nation on Earth. While I am sure they could not imagine the full cost of the struggle that awaited them and their compatriots, the final sentence of the Declaration gives us an indication of the bravery and absolute resolve of the signatories of this document. "And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our...

How can you have an influence on a place you've never been? As a missionary, I have had the privilege of preaching and teaching across the globe. I recently led a team that took the Gospel to the jungles of Panama. Sometimes I think I'm more at home amidst the crocodile hunters, dugout canoes and leafy huts than I am at . . . home. Korea is one place I've never had the privilege of visiting. I've eaten Korean food, and helped start a Korean church in Tulsa, but I've never visited the country myself. A few months ago, I learned InterVarsity Press had chosen to translate my book, Rite of Passage Parenting: Four Essential Experiences to Equip Your Kids for Life (Thomas Nelson, 2007) into the Korean language. The translator for this project, B.J. Kang, wrote me a kind letter about his hopes for his work. The letter said in part, Rite of Passage Parenting will be a good, reliable, biblical guide to many Korean parents who are at a loss what to teach and how to raise their kids to...

Shannon Renfro was a 38-year-old stay-at-home mother of two adopted children. Many times, you would find Shannon sitting on the floor of a thrift store praying with someone she had just met. On other occasions, you'd discover her mark of an encouraging Bible verse or the drawing of a heart in the dust on the window of a home. "Shannon never graduated from college, but she had a degree in that which mattered," said her mother Linda Gardner. "She was on mission 24-7." The fact that Shannon touched hundreds of lives was evident at her funeral. More than 1,500 people gathered at the Public Schools Event Center in Morrison, a town with a population of less than 700, to pay their respects to her. Shannon, who was worship leader at Morrison, Hilltop Country, was found in her home March 4 with gunshot wounds to the stomach. She died a few hours later at Stillwater Medical Center. Accused of the shooting was her 12-year-old son, Kaleb, who today remains in custody at a juvenile...

MCALESTER—Campers attending CrossTimbers Children's Mission Adventure Camp this summer are having a blast playing in and on the water, climbing towers and flying down a zip line on the ropes course, shooting at targets with arrows, .22 caliber bullets or BBs, playing disk golf and using a huge sling shot to launch water balloons at their sponsors sitting on a porcelain "throne" in the middle of a field. They're also learning that their faith is something that shouldn't be kept bottled up inside them, about missionaries sharing the Gospel in Nepal and how the church planting movement is growing in their home state. Located on 560 beautiful acres in the Sans Bois Mountains alongside Lake McAlester, CrossTimbers caters to children who have completed grades 3-6. Eight general sessions this summer will be followed by a session for campers with special needs the end of July. "We've had full groups both weeks," camp director Mark Jones, Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma...

In W.A. Criswell's famous sermon, "The Old Time Religion," he tells about a church conference or church business meeting he had in the church he served as pastor when he was a student at Southern Seminary. "We had a man in our church," Criswell said, "who was born in the objective mood, negative case. No matter what we were considering, he was 'agin it.' "At one church business meeting we were discussing the prospect of building a fence around the church cemetery, and this obstreperous, cantankerous, argumentative church member rose to state his position on the matter at hand. "He vociferously exclaimed, 'I am agin it! I am agin it! Why should we build a fence around the cemetery? Do you know anyone in the cemetery who can get out; and do you know anyone outside of the cemetery who wants to get in? Why build a fence around the cemetery?'" Your church probably doesn't have anyone born in the objective mood and negative case, but I have encountered a few people like that in...

When you read the life and ministry of Jesus, it is clear that He had remarkable love for children. James captured that heart when he spoke of true and undefiled religion as caring for orphans and widows. It is obvious that forever in the heart of the heavenly Father is a love for the least and most vulnerable among us. Our world is filled with abuse and hurt dealt to children. The same is true of our state. Hardly a week goes by without several media reports of children being taken into custody by the Department of Human Services due to violence, neglect and other abuses. What happens to the "least of these?" In a few cases, they are released to relatives. In most cases, however, they are placed into the foster care system. In Oklahoma, more than 10,000 children are living in out-of-home care because their families are in some sort of crisis and cannot care for them. Read that number again—10,000 precious-in-the-sight-of-God children unable to live with family and thrown...

Parenting is easy. Of course this comes from someone who has only been married a year and has two cats but no children. But from where I stand, it looks easy. Before you interject, allow me to explain. Parenting is easy because all you have to do to qualify is to have children. More than 10,000 children are born in the U.S. every day, which means another baby is born about every eight seconds. All over the world, people are becoming parents. But will they be good ones? That's the real question. Sometimes when you see a child misbehaving at the store, you think to yourself, "I wish someone would teach that kid some manners." But you know the truth: someone has already taught that kid manners. They just happen to be bad ones. Kids like this don't suffer from a lack of parental discipline. Instead, their parents' lack of discipline has taught them manners are not important. We worry about exposing kids to bad movies or bad video games, but the place where children learn the most...

DAVIS—If youth leaders have their way, Falls Creek will "Echo" throughout Oklahoma long after the eight weeks of youth camp at Falls Creek Baptist Conference Center are history. As about 7,000 students and sponsors gathered for the opening week June 1, they experienced the first echoes of learning how to follow God in their daily lives through practicing spiritual disciplines with their friends. "Our goal is for the spirit of Falls Creek and what these students learn this summer to carry over to the next school year and beyond," said James Lankford, Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma student mobilization and Falls Creek program specialist. With that as a major thrust, BGCO youth and student specialists Andy Harrison and Norman Flowers are spending two nights each week offering training and encouragement for church staff and adult volunteers who work with students year around. The leaders meet on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings during the Evening Tabernacle Experience from...

Gabe is Jon Marc's best friend. He makes him laugh. He loves to help him. And he designed and built an RA race car for Jon that captured a first-place trophy. Jon is the 7-year-old adopted son of Jim Roebuck, pastor of Hooker, First, and his wife, Emily. The Roebucks got him when he was 6 days old from the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. "We'd been married for years when God blessed us with Jon," said Roebuck. Roebuck said the baby was about 3 weeks old when he saw his first medical specialist. "It was then we got the news about his situation," said Roebuck. "He was diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome." Roebuck revealed that Jon's mother drank, which triggered a stroke seven months in the uterus, destroying two-thirds of her baby's brain. "The first specialist we saw told us Jon would be dead within a year," Roebuck divulged. "Needless to say, we were devastated, but we began to pray and trust and seek the Lord. We knew it wasn't over until God said so." The Roebucks...

DAVIS—"We had a great camp; it was really good." With those few words, Associational Children's Camp Director Chuck Utsler, director of missions for Grady Association, summed up the two sessions of camp for those who have completed grades 4-6 held May 24-30 at Falls Creek Baptist Conference Center near here. Total attendance this year was 6,936, down slightly from last year's record attendance of 7,173, but decisions increased to 1,085—including 556 professions of faith—up from 855 a year ago, and just under the record of 1,124 decisions in 2007. The camp is split into two sessions, with week one actually beginning on Sunday and ending at mid-day on Wednesday and week two beginning Wednesday afternoon and concluding on Saturday. Week two's attendance soared to 4,121 this year, more than 1,300 higher than the 2,815 which attended week one. "I think that probably some of the schools not being out had a lot to do with a lower camp one," said Utsler, who was in his second year...

National & International

WASHINGTON (BP)--President Obama became the first chief executive to host a White House ceremony celebrating "gay pride" Monday, telling several hundred homosexual guests in the East Room that America still has what he called "old attitudes" about homosexuality but that they have "an ally and a champion" in the Oval Office. The June 29 ceremony marked the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots -- which launched the modern-day "gay rights" movement -- and also Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Month, which takes place each June and which was recognized by an Obama proclamation at the beginning of the month. Conservative commentators were quick to note that the White House ceremony came only a month and a half after Obama chose not to host -- as was a custom under the Bush administration -- a White House event commemorating the National Day of Prayer. Monday's event was historic; even though former President Clinton signed "Gay Pride Month" proclamations, he never...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)—The "Run for the Roses" is well-known at Churchill Downs, but for assistant chaplain Yurian Cabrera, the "roses" of the Kentucky Derby come second to seeing faith blossom at the famed racetrack's fruit of ministry. Cabrera, a 29-year-old native of Cuba, is a church planting missionary and part-time pastor of Iglesia Bautista Senda de Luz in Louisville. Serving as a chaplain at the racetrack is yet another of his passions. "I just love the smell, the track, the horses and, most of all, the people who work here," Cabrera smiled broadly, a dark goatee highlighting bright cheeks. Early in the mornings, he relays a "Minute with God" over Churchill Downs' PA system in both English and Spanish as a devotional for track workers. "It is a very brief reminder that God is real and that He cares about the workers here at the track," Cabrera said. More than 700 Hispanics, mostly from Mexico, Central America and Cuba, work in some capacity at the track. Many...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--Union University presented R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., with its M.E. Dodd Denominational Service Award during a June 23 dessert reception at the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting. The award is given annually to a leader within the SBC who displays excellence and leadership in Southern Baptist life, as well as friendship and commitment to Union University. Past recipients include James T. Draper Jr. (2004), Adrian Rogers (2005), Morris H. Chapman (2006), Frank Page (2007) and Thom Rainer (2008). In presenting the award to Mohler, Union President David S. Dockery noted that he and Mohler have been friends for nearly 25 years. "We give this award tonight not because he is a wonderful friend, even though that is the case," Dockery said. "We give this award to him tonight because he is a leader among leaders in the world of theological education, and because he is a leader in the...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--More than 350 representatives of small to large Southern Baptist churches were honored for their 2008 gifts to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions during a June 23 luncheon at the SBC annual meeting in Louisville, Ky. Recognized as either the top dollar-giving or the highest per capita-giving church in their local association to the Annie Armstrong Offering, the churches -- along with associations, state conventions and Woman's Missionary Union -- were praised for raising more than $58.1 million in 2008. Wayne DuBose, pastor of First Baptist Church in Minden, La., credited the congregation's passion to reach the unreached for giving both the highest in dollars ($26,177) and per capita in the Louisiana Baptist Convention's Webster-Claiborne Baptist Association. "We preach and teach that the church exists for those outside our doors," DuBose said. Pastor Bill Sharp, representing First Baptist Church in Minor Hill, Tenn., the...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--"American Idol" season six finalist Phil Stacey presented a concert to students and their families as one of the many family activities during the Southern Baptist Convention in Louisville, Ky., June 23-34. Stacey, a preacher's kid, was ministering at a church in Jacksonville, Fla., and in the U.S. Navy when he auditioned for American Idol. He now resides in Cleveland, Tenn. He directed many of his comments to the sons and daughters of ministers as he sang, then moved the crowd by personally autographing a CD for each person in attendance that he and his wife Kendra, also a preacher's kid, made in their home studio. "I know the pressures on preachers' kids," Stacey said. "I hope I planted a seed." Telling the audience, "The story of victory begins with a story of sorrow," Stacey also acknowledged that doubts are part of the journey of faith. But what is most important is "Who you know," Stacey said in reference to God. Kevin Spratt, coordinator of...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--Members of the Council of Korean Southern Baptist Churches in America are celebrating the mobilization of 1,000 people for missions service through the International Mission Board. The council set a goal in 2007 of sending out 1,000 missionaries through the International Mission Board by the year 2010. The 600 or more people at the Korean Council's annual meeting in Louisville, Ky., responded with fervent applause and intense prayer when Ken Winter, IMB vice president for church and partner services, reported the figures: At the present time, 300 Koreans are serving with the IMB; another 200 are in the missionary candidate process; and 500 have committed to go when resources are available. "The IMB encouraged us to send missionaries, so Koreans have to support IMB," said Sun Ik Hwang, pastor of Hanmaum Korean Baptist Church in Columbus, Ind., when he voiced a plea to council attendees Tuesday morning to connect each missionary with a church for...

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