Baptist Today

Yesterday the staff of Baptists Today took time away from readying a new web site, writing, editing, and carrying out ongoing business functions to celebrate the contributions of two long-term employees.

Jackie Bowen Riley was recognized for 10 years of service as managing editor. She came to Baptists Today on Nov. 1, 2000 after eight years as a book editor for Smyth & Helwys Publishing. But my friendship with Jackie goes back much further.

While a student at Georgia Southern, Jackie spent the summer of 1975 leading the youth ministry in my home church, Boynton Baptist Church near Ringgold, Ga. The next summer, we were assigned to the same team of 10 college students from Georgia who worked at Bambi Lake Assembly in Michigan.

A native of Perry, Ga., Jackie is a graduate of Southern Seminary and has worked as a schoolteacher and a church educator before getting into the publishing business.

Over the past 10 years Jackie has been a dedicated employee who willingly tackled needed tasks well beyond the original job I asked her to take. Her organizational skills and eagle-eye copyediting/proofreading pay off well each time our news journal hits the presses.

Jackie also makes other important contributions to Baptists Today including providing book reviews — “Jackie’s Bookshelf” — on the new web site that we are rolling out this weekend. I’m grateful for her friendship and partnership in our shared work.

Keithen Tucker, who is wrapping up nearly nine years as director of development and marketing, was no stranger to me when he moved to Macon, Ga., to become my coworker. We were students together at Southeastern Seminary long ago.

Keithen and I got acquainted playing intramural football where he was the team’s quarterback. As I like to tell it, I was Keithen’s leading receiver in the fall of 1979. But I played linebacker for a different team.

Our friendship developed, however, in the spring of 1980 when five of us drove from Wake Forest, N.C., to New York City to participate in the late Dr. Tom Bland’s urban ministry workshop. These Georgia boys from Albany and Ringgold enjoyed their first adventures in the Big Apple together.

After more than two decades of pastoral ministry and a term as director of church relations for Wingate University, Keithen returned to his home state to promote the work of Baptists Today.

Keithen has never met a stranger and over the last several years has raised the visibility of this news journal in many circles. We will miss his infectious laugh and fine baritone voice around the office. He gets the tune just right; the lyrics, however, are always a mystery to us — and probably to him.

Many factors contribute to a good job — but none more so than coworkers.

[Photos: Jackie Riley's service with Baptists Today is marked with gifts during a luncheon. Keithen Tucker, who was honored for his work earlier, goofs off with a discarded sofa beside the dumpster near our offices.]

They didn’t ask for it. But they are getting it from me every morning now.

As my daughters prepare for another school day, they find a scribbled sheet in my handwriting on the kitchen island where the morning’s final organizational efforts occur around 7:30 am. (I’m already well into my work at the local coffee shop by then.)

But since I watch early news while knocking the stubble off my face, it seemed wise to leave something behind to make them brighter, if not more fully awake. So each morning I jot down three news items for them to take along in their heads to schools. Hopefully. I'd be happy with two out of three. Ok, One.

I title the page: “Sounding Smart at School.” My scribbling is short and to the point. And I try to offer some variety.

For example, yesterday’s first news item noted that John Legend and Lady Antebellum had been tapped by the San Francisco Giants to sing the National Anthem during the first games of World Series. This was my popular culture story of the day since I’m quite sure they already knew who’d been kicked off Dancing with the Stars. (I was unaware that Tony Bennett would be belting out "God Bless America" during the seventh-inning stretch or that would have made my list.)

Second, I informed them about a new study in which one-half of the teens surveyed admitted to bullying someone last year. This was my attempt to show them something in the news that is relevant to their own stage in life.

My third entry was the sad news that the cholera outbreak in Haiti had already killed more than 280 people due to contaminated water supplies. Such tragic news can inform the global awareness and social sensibilities of those who tend to live in an insulated world. I hope that concern was addressed in at least one class as well.

Will my daily news reports — with a limited circulation of two — make any difference? I don’t know. But even a little bit of expanded knowledge can go a long way — especially if it gets passed along.

Some North Carolina Baptists and other observers have expressed shock at Norman Jameson’s forced resignation as editor of the Biblical Recorder last week. However, I can think of nothing less shocking than learning that Fundamentalists have forced out another editor of a denominationally-controlled newspaper who does anything other than serve as their dedicated foot soldier and mouthpiece.

As the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina's communications director before assuming the editor's chair, Norman was keenly aware of the convention's dramatic shift into firm Fundamentalist control. So the actions that followed should have been of little surprise to him.

During his brief three-year tenure at the Biblical Recorder, Norman showed both competence and caution. But, of course, those are not the characteristics that Fundamentalists want in an editor.

In 2000, Herb Hollinger retired from the helm of Baptist Press — the Southern Baptist Executive Committee public relations arm that masquerades as a legitimate news service. In a meeting shortly afterward, longtime editor of Louisiana's Baptist Message, Lynn Clayton, asked then-SBC Executive Committee President Morris Chapman what kind of person would be chosen to lead BP.

Without hesitation, Chapman responded: “Someone loyal to me and the conservative cause.” While he expanded on that response, there was no mention of competence or experience, just loyalty to those looking for help in carrying out their Fundamentalist agenda. Chapman found such a person in Will Hall. North Carolina will find one too.

These consistently repeated patterns should be no more shocking than the likelihood of cold weather in the winter. Expressions of sadness that Norman has been pushed out of the editor’s chair in Raleigh are well understood. But for only the most naïve can the reaction be described as shock.

Like others who have had such painful departures, Norman will land on his feet and eventually come to realize how much better life can be apart from the suffocating atmosphere of Fundamentalism.

While joining my daughter, a high school senior, on a recent tour of Vanderbilt University, I took this photo of a sign suspended high above a classroom lobby. It quotes Ludwig Wittgenstein: “A new word is like a fresh seed sown on the ground of the discussion.”

With no other references to the Austrian philosopher’s statement, my mind went in two directions.

First, a “new word” can mean an expanded vocabulary. Words are valuable tools of expression. They can communicate deeper meaning than a string of “you knows” and “just reallys.”

Adding new words to our vocabularies — not in show-off ways — can enhance our communication exponentially.

Second, I thought of the value of “new words” in terms of a fresh perspective that is offered. Not all conversations are created equal.

Some are stimulating. Others are mere reinforcements of existing prejudices and tired, untried opinions. Often the coffee shop or hallway ranting is a poor attempt to restate what some talking head said on TV the night before. And it wasn’t that good in its original form.

“Fresh words” can elicit rethinking and bring forth new meaning, unexplored insight or needed caution. Words have amazing power to shape our lives.

Conversations and proclamations that are wrought with unchallenged ignorance and unnecessary babble abound. Therefore, few things in life are as refreshing as a fresh word.

According to an ABP news story and other sources, President Jimmy Carter and various Baptist leaders are making plans for a second major Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant gathering as a follow-up to the one held in Atlanta in 2008.

I have not been in on any of these discussions, but participated in the post-2008 meeting evaluation session at the Carter Center when organizers first talked of repeating the meeting in three years — which follows an old Triennial model for Baptist gatherings. Despite the expected criticism from Fundamentalist Baptists who dismiss all others who don't embrace their narrow doctrine and politics, the New Baptist Covenant celebration was remarkable in bringing together thousands of Baptists across geographical, racial and organizational lines.

The worship was diverse and meaningful to many, and connections for doing effective and compassionate ministries in partnership were realized and energized. After such a heralded experience, it is not surprising that organizers would want to do this again.

Although some Baptist leaders (particularly those who criticized this gathering) tend to forget it, one aspect of Baptist polity is that no one Baptist can speak for another. So, as one Baptist, here are my five thoughts about the next Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant.

One, give us a date quickly. Year 2011 is just around the corner. Calendars fill quickly. Even the January 2012 date that has been mentioned is not that far away.

Two, this meeting impacts others — and vice versa. Individuals who pay their own way or those with travel expense budgets have limitations. Realists will acknowledge that this meeting, like the last New Baptist Covenant gathering, creates a choice for many. That not an argument against holding this gathering, which I fully support. It's just important to say, for example, that some will have to choose between attending this event or another such as the American Baptist Churches Biennial in Puerto Rico, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship 20th Anniversary Assembly in Tampa and the Progressive National Baptists' 50th Anniversary Celebration in Washington — all next summer.

Three, celebrities were a big draw to the 2008 Celebration. Having novelist John Grisham and two former U.S. presidents ( Bill Clinton spoke as well) address fellow Baptists attracted many participants and national media. Who or what will draw a crowd next time?

Four, ignore the critics. There is great benefit in as many Baptists as are willing to be seen in public with each other getting together to acknowledge their common values and commitments to loving neighbors. Handwringing over what results from such gatherings is wasteful. The reality is that meetings can be planned but movements cannot. Much good that comes out of such events cannot be identified or measured.

Five, go for it! Get input from various sources and include broad representation in the meeting. But, ultimately, plan something that will appeal to those with busy schedules and limited travel budgets. Create the sense that when the gathering is over and the reports are out there, one does not want to be among those who say, "Wish I had been there."

[Photo by John Pierce. Atlanta pastor T. DeWitt Smith, then president of the Progressive National Baptist Convention, participates in a January 2007 news conference at the Carter Center announcing the first Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant held in 2008.]

Macon, Georgia’s downtown is filled with varied and impressive architecture. When I stroll the sidewalks — often coming down from Coleman Hill at lunch hour — I’m always impressed by the creative designs and craftsmanship of structures built by and for another generation.

Many of the historic buildings now have clear reminders of what existed at another time in history. Plaques (such as the two pictured) tell what businesses once occupied those spaces.

For me, these are yet another reminder that life moves on. Many have gone before us and, likely, many will go after us. Life is always dynamic, never static.

When our news journal staff met (in person and by phone) last week, we shared personal thoughts that motivate us to keep going when facing a challenging task or a quickly approaching deadline.

Each person had something good to say. For me, I like to keep myself reminded that time is a fleeting gift. It cannot be put in a reserve fund. The only question each day is how those hours will be spent.

Dates on historic buildings — like those on tombstones — remind me that we have been given a particular and narrow “slice of history” in which to live, relate, contribute and find meaning. It is up to us, individually, to use that slice well.