CBF attendees seek discernment (updated)

The number of registered participants is off from previous years, but the spirit was positive as Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF) members gathered in Memphis for the organization's General Assembly June 20-21.

Primary emphasis was given to a process of spiritual discernment as CBFers met twice in state or regional groups to pray and complete survey forms designed to provide input as leaders map out suggestions for CBF's future direction. Moderator Harriet Harral, a business consultant from Fort Worth, explained that the process is designed to help set priorities for the organization.

The discernment groups met both Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. CBF supporters who were not able to attend the General Assembly can also participate in the process by filling out the survey, which can be found at this link. The survey is supposed to be "live" from 10:00 a.m. June 21 until 5:00 p.m. Tuesday, June 24.

Moderator-elect Jack Glasgow (above left), of Zebulon, N.C., reported on ways CBF is cooperating with the United Nations and other bodies to achieve a series of "Millenium Development Goals." Glasgow said CBF has identified more than 100 ways in which the organization is already working toward the same goals, which are mainly designed to promote economic development and improved human rights.

Participants heard from coordinator Dan Vestal, who talked mainly about spiritual formation and the practice of discernment, and human rights proponent Lauran Bethell (right), who related case studies of women who have been rescued from human trafficking, and how churches can assist in reaching out to others. Chuck Poole, pastor of Northminster Baptist Church in Jackson, MS, led a series of theme interpretations on bridge building.

By Friday evening, 2,033 persons had registered for the event, down from the 2,498 who attended last year's meeting in Washington, D.C. Officials said they many CBF supporters had indicated that economic difficulties and the rising price of gas kept would limit their travel. The area also has a relatively small base of CBF supporters in easy driving distance, unlike cities like Atlanta and Charlotte, where CBF has posted record attendances. Some persons who usually attend the CBF annual meeting but have limited travel funds may have chosen to attend the New Baptist Covenant meeting in Atlanta Jan. 30-Feb. 1, which had a strong CBF representation.

Although the meeting was held in the far western reaches of Tennessee, near the borders of Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, and Missouri, the greatest number of registered participants came from North Carolina (261) and Texas (259). Tennessee had 229 representatives registered, followed by Georgia (217), Arkansas (148), Virginia (141), Missouri (117), and Kentucky (115). Alabama (83), Mississippi (86), and South Carolina (76) had similar numbers present. Florida registered 70 participants, and the Oklahoma/Kansas delegation counted 52. The West Region had 43 representatives, and Louisiana had 32. Thirty-two international representatives registered, along with 28 from the North Central region, 28 from the Mid Atlantic region, and 16 from the Northeast region.

Musical artists for the meeting included the African-flavored group Krystaal (above) and contemporary artist Bethany Dillon (left).

Participants approved a $16.5 million budget and a new slate of officers and committee members with no opposition or debate.

More news, observations, and pictures to come in a later post.

BWIM at 25

Baptist Women in Ministry (BWIM) celebrated 25 years of fellowship and advocacy with a laid-back dinner meeting and concert June 19. An overflow crowd enjoyed down-home cooking and music by Kate Campbell at the eclectic Center for Southern Folklore in Memphis.

Leaders presented awards named for pioneer Addie Davis to two seminary students, and read biographical vignettes about early leaders in the movement, as well as present and (hopefully) future women who excel in the practice of ministry.

Historians Pam Durso and Eileen Campbell-Reed presented highlights of "A Twenty-Five-Year Retrospective of Baptist Women in Ministry," which they co-authored. Statistics from the report indicate that the number of Baptist women pastors or co-pastors has grown from 14 in the early 1980s to 113 in 2007 (75 solo pastors, 38 co-pastors). During the same period, the number of women ordained as ministers grew from 200 to 2,000.

To learn more, attend a workshop to be led by Durso and Campbell-Reed on Friday at 1:30 p.m., or download the report. A brief history of BWIM can also be found in the June issue of Baptists Today.

Memphis bites

Prior to this week, my experience in Memphis, Tenn. was limited to changing planes at the world's busiest cargo airport, which is home to FedEx as well as Northwest Airlines. But, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's annual General Assembly is meeting here June 20-21, providing the rich opportunity of visiting the city where the spirits of both Elvis and Martin Luther King remain strong, and the smell of barbeque sauce is around every corner.

The city helps visitors get around via a charming and efficient trolley system, but the drivers must be underpaid, because everyone we met was rude and short-tempered. Other hosts, thankfully, have been more helpful.

Beale Street, the Memphis version of New Orleans' French Quarter and Nashville's downtown honky tonk district, features blues, bars and barbeque joints with names like "Pig" and "Miss Polly's," where the motto is "Love, peace, and chicken grease." It's just a few blocks up from the Mississippi River, where bridges and barges share space with riverboats and city parks.

I've enjoyed the city so far. The trip won't be complete, however, until I've had a chance to do more than just smell the barbeque.

Fresh vegetables and renewed gratitude

We’re visiting with my parents for a few days while en route to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship meeting in Memphis June 18-20. That means, among other things, that we’re gorging ourselves on fresh vegetables from the garden – my father figures that being 80 years old is no excuse for avoiding hard work, especially if there is fresh corn at the end of it.

The corn hasn’t come in yet, especially since his first crop was mostly washed out and he had to replant, but it looks promising. The broccoli and cabbage have already come and gone. Yellow squash and zucchini are abundant, and the green beans are just starting to come in – we had some of those with newly dug red potatoes. The bell and banana peppers are flourishing; the okra and eggplant are on their way. The peas (our favorite) and butterbeans won’t produce for weeks yet, but with homegrown tomatoes getting ripe, I’ve hardly noticed.

The abundance of food we’re enjoying reminds me that others had a far less enjoyable Father’s Day meal. In the U.S. Midwest, thousands of people (and thousands of acres of cropland) are dealing with record flooding or brutal tornadoes. Mealtime doesn’t come automatically when the refrigerator is floating downstream or sitting out in the field.

That’s why relief units from various Baptist Men’s organizations have been following close behind the clouds, offering the straightforward love of Christ and a positive witness untainted by politics or power struggles.

Volunteer units from several states are mentioned in this article. I’m most familiar with the folks who from North Carolina, who have been feeding and caring for firefighters in eastern North Carolina for more than a week, and whose massive “Manna One” feeding unit was sent to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where volunteers can prepare and serve up to 40,000 meals per day.

Then, lest we forget, millions of people on the other side of the world still suffer in the aftermath of the earthquakes, typhoons, and tyranny. China appears to be offering or allowing adequate aid to its many earthquake victims, but officials in Burma/Myanmar remain very resistant to outside aid workers, and have been forcing refugees to return to their devastated villages without adequate food or shelter.

In Zimbabwe, illegitimate president Robert Mugabe’s thugs continue to exploit the famine for which he is personally responsible, manipulating foreign aid to curry favor with supporters, leaving thousands to starve, and continuing to arrest those likely to vote against him in an upcoming runoff election.

Squash and tomatoes that are freely harvested and peacefully eaten may seem simple fare, but they symbolize incredible blessings.

I’m pausing, during a few days of vacation with the home folks, to be thankful -- and to remember those who find themselves crying for relief.

Credit where credit isn't due?

It came as no great surprise that Georgia pastor Johnny Hunt was elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention this week. Hunt had been favored as the anointed one two years ago, but declined to run, inadvertently opening the door for non-establishment candidate Frank Page to take the top spot.

Hunt, a successful evangelist, popular preacher, and senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Woodstock, Ga., agreed to put his name in the pot this year, and brought the office home to the tightly knit party that led the conservative insurgence that captured leadership of the SBC more than two decades ago.

What many people don't know about Hunt -- who goes by "Dr." Johnny Hunt and is regularly introduced as such -- is that his two "doctorate degrees" both appear to be honorary tokens from diploma mills that are not accredited by any respected accrediting organization.

I first became aware of Hunt's tie to the sketchy schools and noted it in August 2006 when Steven Flockhart, a protege of Hunt's, was forced to resign his Florida church when it was discovered that he had fudged on his resume. While Flockhart claimed degrees from two rather legitimate schools, his "credentials" actually came from Covington Theological Seminary, which operates out of Ft. Oglethorpe, Ga. The school confirmed to the the Palm Beach Post that it awarded bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees to Flockhart in 2003, 2004, and 2005.

Do you know any legitimate school where you can earn degrees so quickly, including a "doctoral" program that apparently took just one year?

It turns out that the church had not done due diligence in researching "Dr." Flockhart's background (which included other skeletons that are beside the point at the moment). Apparently, the church had given undue consideration to the strong endorsement given to Flockhart by "Dr." Hunt himself, whose credentials include an honorary "Doctor of Divinity" from Immanuel Baptist Theological Seminary of Sharpsburg, Georgia, and also a "Doctor of Sacred Laws and Letters" from Covington Theological Seminary, Flockhart's online alma mater.

Do you think an honorary degree from a marginal school provides an adequate credential to call someone "Dr."? Do you think it is honest or ethical to accept the title when it carries so little academic weight? Do you think it is appropriate to thus give tacit credibility to unaccredited schools?

To his credit (I guess), on his personal website where he sells sermons and books, Hunt (a North Carolina native) lists only degrees from Gardner-Webb University and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (though he still posts a picture with pre-gray hair). His biographical sketch on sermonsearch.com, however, lists both of the "doctorates," and both regularly appear in the program bio attributed to him at frequent speaking engagements, as pointed out by Robert Parham at EthicsDaily.com. Whether Hunt is responsible for sending out biographical information that lists those degrees, he has apparently done nothing to discourage its use.

There is no question that Hunt is a gifted preacher, for those who like his style of preaching, and an effective evangelist. He has successfully grown First Baptist Church of Woodstock from medium to mega-sized. He has been a faithful soldier in the conservative movement. He has more than enough credentials to be a leader among today's Southern Baptists without claiming dubious doctorates.

As Southeastern Seminary president Danny Akin warned in a column for Baptist Press following the Flockhart fiasco, pastors who seek to be above reproach don't pad their resumes.

Integrity matters -- especially at the top.

[Disclaimer: in the interest of disclosure, the author spent more than five years earning his Ph.D. at Duke University (completed 1989), and was awarded an honorary doctorate by Campbell University in 2005. He may rightly be considered a bit of a purist on the subject, but still doesn't expect to be called "Dr."]