Tell the Truth and Trust the People; A Tragedy Unfolding in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, Alabama

An Alabama newspaper broke the story yesterday about a massive fraud scheme perpetrated by a man named Gray Harvey. It seems that Mr. Harvey filled out fraudulent insurance documents and has swindled home and business owners along the coast out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The company that employeed Harvey, Starfish Insurance Agency, is owned and operated by Pamela Wynona Schoen. Pamela grew up a Southern Baptist, has her mom working the front desk of the office, and simply hired Gray Harvey to help her do some book keeping at the growing insurance business. The fraudulent activities of Mr. Harvey were unknown to the owner of Starfish Insurance and were only recently uncovered. When police went to question Harvey, they discovered he had fled the condominium he lived in at Orange Beach. Pamela Schoen is now having to make good on the money swindled by Harvey by repaying all her customers the money that Harvey took for himself. The loss is $400,000 in cash and growing.

What is even more bizarre is the possibility, according to Pamela's mother, that Gray Harvey may have been attempting to poison Pamela last summer by using arsenic he mixed in his boss's coffee and food. Pamela has recovered from her serious illness, and it was only after the discovery of Harvey Gray's enormous fraud that she and her mother began to put two and two together and have begun asking questions about Gray's involvement in Pamela's mysterious illness.

Gray Harvey Could Have Been Stopped

What really steams me about this sad story is that Gray Harvey could have been stopped before he hurt people on the Gulf Coast. Gray was employeed by the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention from 1998 to 2004, and during that time he had embezzled at least $370,000, but in my opinion, closer to $500,000 dollars from the IMB. IMB leadership refused to prosecute Gray Harvey.

Gray was terminated before I became a trustee of the IMB, and I did not participate in any oath of secrecy, as did other trustees. Before I attended my first trustee meeting I had several phone calls and letters about this issue from concerned missionaries. One even drove to Enid to give me documents about the case. At my first trustee meeting I met with trustee leadership and administrative leadership and asked some very tough questions about the handling of the Gray Harvey embezzlement. My main concern was the refusal to prosecute Gray Harvey, as well as the inability of our organization to catch such a massive fraud.

It seems that Gray had used his oversea's appointment at the IMB, an accounting position, to alter and forge documents. He requested fraudulent reimbursement by either adding a zero to the end of an actual invoice or he simply created fraudulent invoices. Bob Allen reports the very strange circumstances under which Gray was caught in his fraud at the IMB; an IMB employee requested to ride in the elevator for which payment had been sent to Gray Harvey, only to discover there was never any elevated put in the building where Gray worked.

I was told there were three reasons Gray would not be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. First, it would possibly compromise our missionaries if prosecution occurred in the country where Gray lived when he took Lottie Moon and Cooperative Program monies. Second, we were about to begin the 2005 Lottie Moon emphasis, and negative publicity would hurt the offering. And, finally, an agreement had been reached that Gray Harvey would repay the IMB.

I tried to point out that trusting the word of a man who took my church widows' offerings to Lottie Moon and the Cooperative Program was not particularly smart. Further, I pointed out that if Gray Harvey were not prosecuted and jailed, he could possibly hurt others in the future. I closed my arguments for prosecuting Gray Harvey to the fullest extent of the law by reminding trustee and administrative leadership of the old SBC axiom that arose during a similar embezzlement at the Home Mission Board during the 1930's - "Tell the truth and trust the people."

Unfortunately, my counsel was not taken by trustee leadership. In fact, this was the beginning of a rocky relationship with several of my fellow trustees, including the Chairman of the Finance Committee, A.C. Halsell, who advocated we keep everything hush hush. Gray Harvey defaulted on his payments to the IMB shortly after he began them, as I knew he would, and the IMB then sought a court judgment against him in Richmond to pay what he pledged he would. The courts approved the judgment and ordered Gray Harvey to pay. Um hum. Good luck.

I am positive that Pamela Schoen, the employees of the Starfish Insurance Agency she operates, and the homeowners along along the Gulf who have been swindled out of their money wish the IMB had prosecuted Gray. He would not have been free to perpetrate his massive fraud. We at the Southern Baptist Convention better learn a hard lesson from this; it is never good to do any business of the SBC behind closed doors - period.

If there is any good news, it might be that Gray Harvey was baptized in a Baptist church and never prayed in a private prayer language. (The preceding sentence will only be understood by some Southern Baptists and all IMB trustees).

Shame on us that he's not in jail.

In His Grace,

Wade Burleson

Three Years Later; That Which I Feared Is Come

It was in the fall of 2005, exactly three years ago, that the trustees of the International Mission Board established a doctrinal policy that exceeded the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message and excluded otherwise qualified Southern Baptists from serving on the mission field. I had a decision to make in November of 2005 that was not easy for me personally. I could either resign in protest over what I called at the time "the narrowing of the doctrinal parameters of Southern Baptist missions cooperation" or I could remain a trustee of the International Mission Board and begin a blog to make Southern Baptists aware of what was taking place in their missions organization. I chose the latter.

Ironically, the two new doctrinal policies at the IMB did not affect me personally. I have never had a "private prayer language," nor have I ever seen the need for one. Also, I was baptized "in a Southern Baptist church." I would qualify as a missionary under the two new doctrinal policies. However, I felt strongly that to exclude other Southern Baptists from the mission field over how they pray in private, especially when the 2000 BFM is silent on the matter, was an act that went beyond the appropriate authority of IMB trustees. In addition, for trustees to adopt a definition of baptism that places qualifications on the baptizer and the "church" doing the baptizing was historically a Landmark doctrine and practice, not Southern Baptist. Something had to be done to correct the error of the IMB trustee board. That error was not so much trustee leadership personally holding to cessationism or Landmark ecclesiology, for many Southern Baptists hold to these doctrines; rather, the error was those trustee leaders demanding ALL Southern Baptists believe like them by passing doctrinal policies that exclude those who disagree.

We trustees were never called to be the doctrinal watchdogs of the Southern Baptist Convention. Nor do we have the authority to establish a doctrinal basis for our coooperation as Southern Baptist churches, especially by implementing doctrinal demands that go beyond the 2000 BFM. The Garner Motion proves that the Southern Baptist Convention agrees with me on this issue. The IMB trustee leadership stepped eggregiously beyond their Convention given authority.

I have often been asked why I drew a line in the sand over the "private prayer language" and "baptism" policies. Most Southern Baptists have very little patience with what they believe to be a charismatic practice (praying in tongues in private), and even more Southern Baptists have little understanding of the dangers of Landmarkism. "Why", I was asked, "do you draw a line in the sand over these particular issues?" As most Southern Baptists know, trustee leadership was furious over my public opposition, particularly since hundreds of Southern Baptists were reading my blog and writing trustees and asking "What are you doing?" In order to avert attention from the real issue, trustee leaders sought to make me the issue, which led to very poorly thought through actions against me, including a motion for my removal (later rescinded), the adoption of a new policy that demanded all trustees "publicly support board approved policies that they cannot privately support" (in my opinion the worst policy ever be adopted by a Southern Baptist agency in the history of our Convention), and two eventual "censures" against me for violating this terrible "no dissent" policy. Why would I be willing to go through such an attack against me personally? Why would I put my family, my church, and my ministry in the line of fire, risking others accusing us of being "liberal" (which is ridiculous), or "troublemakers," or the like?

Because of what I saw coming.

I told a few people privately, and I told them three years ago, that if people didn't start drawing a line in the sand over attempts to narrow and constrict the doctrinal parameters of Southern Baptist cooperation, then we would eventually get to the place that Calvinists would be told they are no longer welcome in the SBC. Then, we would come to the place that those Southern Baptists who are not dispensational in their eschatology would be told they are not welcome. The only Southern Baptists that would eventually be left are those who would believe just exactly like those small, independent, separatist Landmark Southern Baptist churches and those who lead them. I remember what Jerry Falwell said when he joined the SBC, an act that drew heavy criticism from his fellow separatist, Landmark Baptist brothers - "I haven't changed, the SBC has changed."

Don't misunderstand. I welcome all Landmark, separatist churches and pastors to the SBC. I do not welcome, however, any attempt to make us all like you. I do not welcome any attempt to act as if Southern Baptist "orthodoxy" is "closed communion," or "ecclesiastical authority to baptize," or "cessationism," or a denial of the doctrines of grace, or a demand that everyone be dispensational. If I risk being called the troublemaker by exposing those who are seeking to EXCLUDE, so be it. It is the excluders who will destroy the Southern Baptist Convention, not those who expose them.

Bottom line, I knew that if a line in the sand was not drawn at some point, those who hold to Calvinism would be targeted next. Three years later, that which I feared has come upon us.

In 1995 the Oklahoma Baptist General Convention asked Dr. Herschel Hobbs and me to write articles that would be published in the Baptist Messenger that would show how Southern Baptists could disagree over what is commonly called "Calvinism," but still maintain fellowship, cooperation and a spirit of unity and love. Herschel and I were friends, and the Oklahoma state Baptist paper printed both articles, unedited, to show how Southern Baptists can take two differing positions on these doctrines, but not separate or point accusatory fingers.

This week I will publish both articles on this blog. On Wednesday, I will publish Dr. Herschel Hobbs article which advocates classical Arminianism with the exception that Herschel, like most Southern Baptists, affirms eternal security in contradistinction to Arminianism. On Friday, I will publish my view, which is different from Dr. Hobbs written interpretations of the Biblical doctrine of soteriology (salvation). Oklahoma is a place where Southern Baptists who disagree on the doctrines of grace can agree to cooperate and love one another in spite of our differences.

Dr. Hobbs died several years ago. It is my prayer that the ability to cooperate with Southern Baptists who disagree on doctrinal issues didn't die with him. We cannot let the spirit and temperament that demands doctrinal conformity prevail in the SBC. I would much rather build bridges of understanding with those who disagree with me than allow those who disagree with me declare that people on the other side of them are not "orthodox" Southern Baptists and should be removed.

I cannot, I will not, be silent about the need for cooperation among Southern Baptists. Cooperation in the midst of doctrinal diversity is the fabric of who we are as Southern Baptists. It is, if you will, true Southern Baptist identity.

In His Grace,


Wade Burleson

The Nashville Tales: Lessons from Chaucer

My maternal grandfather (16 times) was a medieval poet named Geoffrey Chaucer, widely regarded as "the father of English Literature." He is best remembered for the classic medieval work entitled The Canterbury Tales, a set of stories told by a miscellaneous collection of pilgrims on their way from London to Canterbury, a city which had become a magnet for Christian worshippers after the murder of Thomas Becket in Canterbury's cathedral in 1170. The Canterbury Tales is often studied in English literature college courses, but for a great read, avoiding the medieval English of Chaucer, I would encourage you to purchase the recently published translation by Burton Raffel.

The Wall Street Journal describes The Canterbury Tales as:

. . . a human drama, in which the more than two-dozen pilgrims bicker and challenge each other. The redneck, self-employed Miller annoys the Reeve, a farm-manager who makes his living by pleasing the gentry; the aristocratic Knight cuts the Monk off in mid-story for being too damn gloomy; the celibate academic Clerk from Oxford clashes with the worldly and much-married Wife of Bath, who has no time for book-learning but insists that she should be made a professor anyway (of Love Studies, which she understands in depth).

What motivates all these pilgrims to journey to Canterbury is their desire to pay respects to the beloved Archbishop Becket who had been murdered by King Henry's soldiers. In the medieval ages, the king governed the church. King Henry did not take too well with Becket questioning various actions of the king, and it is said that days before the Archbishop's murder, King Henry raised his head off of his sickbed and queried, "Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest?"

Four knights heard their king and took his question as a command. They journeyed to Canterbury and murdered the Archbishop as he prepared for vespers. The knights killed Thomas Becket because he dared to question the authority, actions, and leadership of the king.

A Modern Parallel to the SBC

In many respects Southern Baptists have become as hierarchial as Roman Catholics and Anglicans. Though we have no pope, it could be argued that there is a College of Cardinals within the SBC. Most dramatically, a separatist Landmark element within the SBC seems to desire to remove from our Convention anyone who disagrees with them, or simply questions them. These separatists prop up the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message as a tool that helps them propel from fellowship anybody who disagrees or happens to question the authority or actions of a fellow Southern Baptist conservative resurgence leader.

The most recent and bizarrre example of this tactic comes from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary professor Malcolm Yarnell. Southern Baptist pastor and theologian Dr. Tom Ascol recently questioned, in writing, the wisdom of other Southern Baptist professors and pastors who seem to want to make Calvinism a dividing issue within the SBC. Dr. Yarnell responds to Dr. Ascol's criticism of the John 3:16 Conference by alleging that Dr. Ascol shares communion with a Presbyterian (gasp) and should not be considered an orthodox Southern Baptist. Dr. Yarnell writes:

Dr. Ascol is not willing to affirm the Baptist Faith and Message in its entirety. Let it be clearly noted that communion with Presbyterians is certainly within the prerogative of Dr. Ascol's local church as a free church. However, communion with Presbyterians is outside Southern Baptist orthodoxy, at least according to the common confession of the Southern Baptist Convention. A reading of articles 6-7, especially the first paragraph of article 7, of the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 will demonstrate how communion with Presbyterians is outside the confessional mainstream of Southern Baptist life.

Unlike the medieval ages when knights simply took out bishops who questioned the authority of the always orthodox king, foot soldiers of the Landmark and separatist leaders of the Conservative Resurgence will only rest when pastors, churches and people who do not agree with them are removed from the Southern Baptist Convention. The weapon of choice is the accusation that those who disagree with Landmark, separatist theology lack "Southern Baptist orthodoxy." The 'liberals' are gone, so we have to create new liberals. There is nobody left to slay in the SBC but those who are busy about doing the work of Christ - within and through - the SBC. So now, to continue the fight, some must make their fellow conservative evangelicals in the SBC - people who have chosen to cooperate with the SBC - as the enemy of "orthodox" SBC'ers. The idea that closed communion is THE "orthodox" and only proper view of communion in the SBC ought to send chills up the spine of every Southern Baptist who cherishes missions cooperation. Dr. Yarnell writes about Dr. Ascol and his church's view of fellowship with a Presbyterian:

The Southern Baptist Convention may be facing a similar problem to that which it faced with Liberalism.

Good night.

If something doesn't change in the Southern Baptist Convention, and soon, a modern day Chaucer will arise to write The Nashville Tales - a collection of stories of those who have been pushed out of SBC cooperative ministry by "Christians" who have never become confident enough in their faith to be able to handle questions. If that happens then evanglicals will be talking of the SBC using the past tense.

In His Grace,


Wade Burleson

Cocksure Christians Cause Continual Conflict

. Every Tuesday morning inside an old bar our church has purchased and converted into a building we call "The Grace Place," a large group of Christian men gather for discipleship and encouragement. I enjoy these weekly Bible studies which we have held on a regular basis for the last seventeen years. Our usual method is to open with prayer requests and praise reports, followed by a time of prayer. Then we take a chapter from the book of the Bible we are studying and assign two or three men to read the text aloud. After the text is read, I will offer a few observations and then ask the men for their thoughts and comments.

This past Tuesday morning's text was I Peter 4, and the discussion began around I Peter 4:6 which states:

For the gospel has for this purpose been preached even to those who are dead, that though they are judged in the flesh as men, they may live in the spirit according to the will of God.

The men at the Bible study offered four different observations and interpretations of this verse, including the following:

(1). The dead are those who lived in the antediluvian age, and the gospel was proclaimed to them by the Spirit as much as to those living in Peter's day.

(2). The dead are those who are "spiritually" dead, and the Spirit makes them alive through the preaching of the gospel.

(3). The dead are the martyrs who have died for their faith in Christ, and the judgment they received "in the flesh" was the judgment from the men who put them to death, but the Spirit makes them alive to God.

(4). The dead are those who Christ proclaimed victory to after his death at Calvary - but before His resurrection - when He took "captivity captive" and carried from Hades those He redeemed by the Spirit.

The various positions were elucidated, not so much advocated, by those who offered them, and we all listened with respect. The spirit was loving, the discussion healthy, and when it was all over I learned a great deal. Not all of the possible interpretations of that text can be correct. In fact, I am quite comfortable in saying that there is one correct interpretation of the sacred text found in I Peter 4:6.

That which stands out to me about our Bible study, however, is the love, respect and Christian charity shown by all the men toward each other - even those who disagreed with the various interpretations offered.

As I left "The Grace Place," I thanked the Lord for bringing me to a church full of people who would rather gently elucidate than proudly advocate. I also realized that those in the Southern Baptist Convention who are so cocksure about their interpretations of Scripture (i.e. "tongues have ceased," or "the gift of tongues continues"; i.e. "God is trying as hard as He can to save every person," or "God only desires to save the elect"; i.e. "women can't teach men the Bible," or "women can teach men theology," etc . . . ). I have absolutely no problem with any Southern Baptist believing any of the above examples, or any Southern Baptist explaining why they believe what they believe.

It is the arrogant, cocksure approach that a specific interpretation being advocated is the only possible correct interpretation that winds up causing conflict in the SBC. May God give us all a little humility to understand we are fallible men and women, and it is much better to elucidate one's views rather than advocate them.

In His Grace,


Wade

A Team Must Win to Be In

I arrived home at 12:30 a.m. this morning from Norman, Oklahoma after experiencing the loudest crowd at Owen Field in the history of Oklahoma football. The 2000 Oklahoma vs. Nebraska game in Norman, which vaulted OU into the number one national ranking, was also played in front of a riled up crowd; but last night's raucous game is unsurpassed in OU history in term's of electricity. When I arrived home I watched the game on Tivo, much of it fastworded between plays, in order to see if middle linebacker Austin Box, a longtime family friend and fellow Enidite, actually played as well as it looked like he did from my viewpoint in the stands. He did, and the story of OU's improvement on defense since the red-shirted freshman Box was inserted at middle linebacker is the biggest story coming out of the game.

The Harris Poll and the Coaches Poll have been released and OU is number 2, behind Alabama - the place they should be in my opinion. The BCS poll will come out later this afternoon, and I am writing this before we know whether or not OU passed Texas in BCS standings. If the Big 12 South ends in a three way tie between three one loss teams (Texas, Tech and OU), then the highest ranked BCS team will be declared the winner of the Big 12 South and will play in the Big 12 Championship game against Missouri in two weeks. I predict that OU will pass Texas in BCS standings, if not today at least by next Sunday if can they beat OSU next Saturday night.

However, for all those Texas fans who will gripe about OU passing Texas, even though Texas beat OU in week four of the season, chew on the following:

IF OSU beats OU next week, it will be TECH, not Texas that goes to the Big 12 Championship game. There is not one soul in the BCS system, the Big 12 Conference, or anybody else who would want TECH in the Big 12 Championship game with Texas sitting on the sidelines. Therefore, everyone involved in the BCS system will be pulling for OU to beat OSU in order to make the Big 12 and BCS Championship games what they could be, and should be, to make the season exciting at the end. If OU wins, then the question is - who goes to the Big 12 Championship game of the three one loss teams?

The answer should be a simple one:

If OU loses, Tech is in. If OU wins, Texas or OU is in.

Don't put the hopes of Texas on the backs of an OU win.

Put the hopes of OU on the back of an OU win.

Rank OU ahead of Texas, or you risk a really messed up BCS.

Wade

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OVERSOLD: Pastor David Cowan, Hosea and Gomer, and the Story of Crissy Moran

My son will tell you I am a movie buff. He and I thought of starting a father/son movie Christian review web site along the lines of Siskel and Ebert, but wisdom prevailed. We have father son outings where we go see the newest release and talk about life's lessons learned through the film, always applying our Christian worldview to weed out the chaff. I've probably seen hundreds of movies in my lifetime, but are three movies that have made an impact on me from a theological and spiritual perspective. The first was when I was a 10 year old kid watching the television movie Brian's Song for the first time. When Brian died, I cried. It was the first time in my life death impacted me through a movie. I have now spent years working with people facing death, and the feelings I have about death are still the same. The second time a film moved me in a spiritual and theological manner was just a couple of years ago when watching the epic C.S. Lewis film Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. When all in Narnia seemed lost and hopeless, and the people were facing certain death at the hands of their enemies, the Lion reappears, steps majestically onto the rock and roars. I know it may sound corny to some, but the imagery in that movie that portrayed Jesus Christ rescuing His people, making death and all His enemies a footstool, moved me to tears of joy.

The third time a film resonated with me theologically was yesterday when I watched a thirty minute movie called OVERSOLD.

Pastor David Cowan and Elevation Church

My friend, David Cowan, emailed me to tell me that a story he had written, a modern parable of Hosea and Gomer, was finally ready for distribution in the form of a short film. David is a graduate of Oklahoma Baptist University and is pastoring a Southern Baptist Church plant in Phoenix, Arizona, called Elevation Church, in Phoenix, Arizona. With the help of his church and producer Paul Morrell, the short film has been released for download over the Internet. David asked that I watch the film and let him know what I thought. I went to the offical web-site and purchased the download to watch in my office.

It goes without saying that even Hollywood blockbuster movies are fake. They are not real life. Actors wear make-up, stories are made-up, and scenes are set-up. Even if a movie is a biography or based on a true story, it is still just a movie. But those movies that have moved me in terms of my view of life and God have been movies conveying a profound message. Brian's Song was based on the true story of professional football player Brian Picalo, his losing battle with cancer, and the friendship he had with fellow Chicago Bear teammate Gale Sayers, and illustrated for me the importance of relationships and the impact of death The Chronicles of Narnia was a movie built on the allegory of the battle between good and evil, and the ultimate victory of Jesus Christ over the forces of darkness. OVERSOLD is about how Jesus Christ pursues sinners until He wins them over with His incredible, unconditional, effectual and eternal love.

Crissy Moran

OVERSOLD is a short film that is a modern day parallel to the Hosea and Gomer love story found in the Bible. It stars former porn star Crissy Moran, now a follower of Jesus Christ, as the "Gomer" character. It depicts a young pastor who receives an inheritance after the death of his parents in a car accident. He takes a sabbatical to Las Vegas to visit his only surviving relative, a step-brother. In Vegas he meets a dancer and begins to court her. After a couple of weeks the pastor discovers the woman he loves is actually a stripper. Rather than turn his back on her, the young pastor offers to marry her if she will leave Vegas and her life behind and return with him to the church he pastors. She says yes to his proposal, and that is where the story gets really interesting. One of the best scenes in the movie is when the church members discover their pastor has actually married a former stripper. When the pastor's wife begins to feel out of place in her new home, and when the pressure mounts to pay off the huge financial debt she owes her former handler and boyfried, she returns to Vegas. We then follow the pastor as he returns to Vegas to "redeem" his wife. Anyone who has read the book of Hosea in the Bible knows that the movie script is an adaptation of this timeless story of God's love and redemption.

OVERSOLD is basically a video message of hope, targeted towards those that suffer from addictions to porn or are connected with the dark world of the sex industry. It is a film that pours light into dark places, and it is already being used to enlighten many with the grace of God. The film was produced on a small budget, mostly the savings of producer Paul Morrell, and is the dream and vision of the pastor and people of Elevation Church in Phoenix, Arizona.

Crissy Moran, the lead actress in the film, has had her life radically transformed by the power of Jesus Christ. She told me yesterday that it is her hope this film will be used by God to show women and young girls caught up in the porn industry that they are not beyond the reach of God's love. In addition, it is her desire, as well as Pastor Cowen's, that this film cause Christian men to awaken to the truth that viewing porn is not a "victimless" act. Crissy is attempting to remove, through legal means, all of the porn clips of her on the Internet. She may not succeed, but it is my prayer that those who are tempted to search for Crissy Moran porn clips will actually be led to OVERSOLD and discover a testimony that will transform the soul. Pastor David Cowan narrates the movie, and at the end, he gives what I believe is the money quote:

God pursues a love relationship with you that is real and personal. God is truly the God of second chances. You might feel like that all your chances are spent, that there is no hope, that for you all hope is lost.

But this story tells us just the opposite. God tells us, "No, no, there is hope for you. There is grace for you.

Pastor Cowan goes on in his narrative to address prostitutes, strippers, porn addicts, escorts, and other people affected by the billion dollar sex industry in America. He closes by challenging the viewers of the movie to open their lives to Jesus Christ, who unlike others, "will never leave you or abandon you."

My prayers are with Elevation Church, Pastor David Cowan, Crissy Moran and the movie OVERSOLD. I thank God that a Southern Baptist Church and a Southern Baptist pastor have taken the risk of bringing the story of God's love for sinners to people who might never have heard it through traditional church means. They also realize that people in our church pews are sometimes just as hopeless and desparate as those in the back alleys of Hollywood. Pastor and Mrs. David Cowan and Crissy Moran will be at Emmanuel, Enid next year to help us with a regional Men's Purity Conference. May God use their stories and their movie OVERSOLD to lead lost, desparate men and women to a knowledge of the saving love of Jesus Christ.

Go, download the movie, and help support those Christians that are reaching people in the porn industry with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

In His Grace,

Wade

The Real Story of Survivors in Gabon, Africa

My fifteen year old son sent in his application for his summer mission work today, and he is praying about the country where he hopes to spend several weeks sharing Christ and starting churches. I shared with him the following story when he sent off his application as an encouragement to take every decision and every need before his Lord in prayer. Walker Moore, President of Awe Star Ministries, shared with me this story while we visited during last week's Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma.

It seems that a group of young people and adults from America went to Gabon, Africa a few summers ago to share the gospel of Jesus Christ among the native Africans. The Lord moved in powerful ways and over three hundred people placed their faith in Christ. A church was planted with a native Gabon believer serving as the church's pastor. Shortly before the missions team was due to leave Africa to come home to the States, Muslim extremists, upset with the number of conversions to Christianity in the community where the team was ministering, broke into the place where the American teenagers and their sponsors were staying. The thieves stole all 20 of the American's passports, all the cash the team was carrying, and their yellow fever cards.

When the robbery was discovered, the teenagers, having been taught in their training that God is in control of every event, and that the first response of every need is to pray, gathered in the courtyard of where they were staying and began to pray. They worshipped, they sang, they prayed. The kids all acknowledged that they were helpless, but they knew their heavenly Father knew who stole the passports and money, and they asked Him to simply see to it that their valuable possessions were returned. A passport in Gabon is worth $5,000 on the black market, but the kids didn't consider the impossibilities, only that with God nothing is impossible.

They were praying and worshipping into the wee hours of the morning, when one of the teenagers noticed a sack being thrown over the wall. At first he thought the Muslims were throwing things at them, but then he went over and opened the package he found every single one of the 20 passports, every single dollar that had been stolen, and every single yellow card. The native African Christians who had been praying with the American teenagers began to dance and rejoice.

Within days, word of the event had spread throughout the country and many came inquiring about the power of this "God of the passports." The Gabon church continues to grow to this day because some American Christian teenagers and their sponsors were able to take God at His word. He is able to do exceedingly, abundantly more than we could ever ask or think.

What are you praying for today? CBS may announce the winner of Survivor Gabon in a few weeks, but in my opinion, the real survivors from Gabon are those kids who displayed their faith in the power of their mighty God and His Son Jesus Christ.

In His Grace,

Wade Burleson

"I Would Die for You" --- The Story of BJ Higgins

_______________________________________________
Walker Moore and I served together as chaplains of the Tulsa Police Department in the late 1980's. At the time Walker was on staff at First Baptist Church, Tulsa, Oklahoma. In 1992 I moved to Enid, Oklahoma to become pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church, and Walker prepared to resign from FBC Tulsa to begin a ministry to teenagers and their parents called Awe Star Ministries. Awe Star Ministries was designed to help 14,15,16, and 17 year old kids go through a rite of passage into adulthood - through missions. Over the past fifteen years Awe Star Ministries has placed thousands of young people in 39 countries of the world to share the gospel, plant churches and make the tranistion to adulthood.

Walker is currently the number one missions speaker on the Southern Baptist missions tour, particularly Global Impact weekends (GIC's) which are held at Southern Baptist churches around the nation. One of the reasons Walker speaks during the main services at churches like Prestonwood, Second Houston, FBC Dallas, etc . . . is because of the stories he tells of kids transformed through their involvement with missions through Awe Star. Our youngest son, Logan, turns fifteen tomorrow, and we are giving to him as a birthday gift the story of an Awe Star fifteen year old who gave his life for Christ on the mission field - in 2005.

BJ Higgins went with Awe Star ministries to minister to the people of Peru in the summer of 2005. During that summer over 5,000 Peruvians gave their lives to Jesus Christ through the ministry of the Awe Star team that included BJ Higgins. While ministering the gospel of Christ, fulfilling his rite of passage from childhood to adulthood, BJ caught the bubonic plague. Awe Star missionaries are taught that nothing is out of the control of a sovereign God, so when things happen beyond our control, prayer is the answer. When Awe Star staff and BJ's own father asked BJ whether or not he was praying for God to heal him, BJ responded that his prayer is that his life be used by God for the furtherance of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and if that means he lives, he is asking for healing. But, if the gospel is furthered through his death, he is asking God to take him home.

BJ died in late summer of August 2005 of bubonic plague.

The story of BJ's life, written by his parents Brent and Deanna Higgens, with excerpts from the journals of BJ, is called I Would Die for You. It is #1 on Amazon.com's bestseller list among teenagers. The story has impacted hundreds of people, including our soon to be fifteen year old son Logan - as well as his father. When Southern Baptists write petty, mean or un-Christian things about me or others I love, I think of BJ Higgins. When I am tempted to lose focus on what is really important, and catch myself getting caught up in the politics of a denomination, I think of BJ Higgins. BJ didn't talk about missions, he lived it. BJ wasn't concerned about his own legacy, he was captivated by Christ's legacy. BJ understood that a man is not really ready to live until he is fully prepared to die at any moment.

I want to thank Walker Moore and Brent Higgins for being an encouragement to me this past week at their Awe Star headquarters in Tulsa. I went to Tulsa for our Baptist Convention of Oklahoma, but I came away blessed by two men who fully comprehend what it means to change the world one life at a time. I close with the words of BJ, written in his journal before he died:

I will not be satisfied.
I will not let my passion be held in a bottle.
I will not let my light be hidden.

I will stand up.
I will let my voice be heard.
I will lead. I will serve. I will fight.
I will tell people about Christ.
I will unsheathe my sword.

It's time to raise a revolution.
God will give me the strength.

BJ Higgins, Marty, 1989-2005

The Problem of Calling People Hyper-Calvinists

At the John 3:16 Conference last week, Dr. David Allen, Professor of Preaching at Southwestern Theological Seminary, spoke in opposition to "Limited Atonement." Dr. Allen offered that many theologians known as Calvinists, including John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, and John Bunyan did not believe in a particular redemption (i.e. that Christ died for the elect), but they believed that Christ died for every sinner without exception, even those who will receive the condemnation of God in hell. I had no problem, at all, with either Dr. Allen's remarks nor the defense of his proposition. I found Dr. Allen displayed excellent scholarship, and enjoyed his presentation, though I would in the end disagree with a few of his conclusions.

There was one area of Dr. Allen's presentation, however, that did cause me some sadness. Dr. Allen felt it necessary to call several individuals "hyper-calvinists," including modern Baptist James White, 18th Century Baptist theologian John Gill (whom Charles Spurgeon called "my mentor in Israel"), and George Ella. Ella was listed as a "hyper-calvinist," along with about a dozen other individuals in one of Dr. Allen's handouts. I thought Dr. Steve Lempke of New Orleans, who followed Dr. Allen in the program, was dead on when he made the observation, "I am not sure that there is such a thing as a living hyper-calvinist. I find that those who call others hyper-calvinists have simply run into people more calvinistic than they are." The reason the "hyper-calvinist" label bothers me is because those who use it seem to believe that the alleged hyper-calvinist is not preaching the gospel, has no concern for the lost, and is not orthodox in his view of salvation.

Dr. George Ella, approaching 70 years of age, is a member of our church. He is a prolific author, having written many excellent biographies of 18th century saints, including Augustus Toplady, William Huntington and John Gill. The first time I met George was at the Oklahoma City Airport when I picked him up after flying in from Germany. He was crying. I asked him if everything was all right. He explained that he had spent the previous five hours sharing Christ with the young lady seated next to him. His soul was burdened for her salvation. George spent years among the Lap Indians of Finland, sharing Christ while serving as a missionary to the Laps. These Laps, the poorest of the poor and the outcasts of society in Finland, grew to love George. Dr. Ella learned their language, lived with them in their tent villages, ate their food, and became their father in the faith. This is the same George Ella, the linguist, who learned nearly 20 languages in order to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with people in their native tongue. This is the man Dr. Allen called a hyper-calvinist. If Ella is a hyper-calvinist, may God give the Southern Baptist Convention more of them.

I think that if it is the desire to build bridges in the Southern Baptist Convention, it would probably be best to avoid tagging people who believe differently from us with "labels" other than those things which Christ calls them. They are forgiven, they are brothers, they are His people, they are children of the King. My brother in Christ, Dr. David Allen, may disagree with Dr. George Ella on issues of the atonement, but it might be helpful if we avoided labeling people "hyper-calvinists" and simply discuss the issues of disagreement.

In His Grace,

Wade