ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, December 7, 1996 TAG: 9612090085
SECTION: RELIGION PAGE: B-9 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: DALLAS
SOURCE: CHRISTINE WICKER KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
The Baptists, they are a-changing. A little bit.
They're still after your soul. The Baptist General Convention of Texas has pledged to tell every person in the state about Jesus by the year 2000.
So where's the change?
``My conviction is we don't do it by dropping tracts on people's heads,'' said the Rev. Charles Wade, president of the 2.6-million member Texas convention.
The stereotypes that Baptists used to wear are out of date, the pastor of Arlington's First Baptist Church said during a news conference last month after his election to a second term.
Asked what he meant, the preacher began to roll.
``If you ask a lot of people in other denominations, `What's the first thing you think of when you hear Baptist?' they say: `Pushy. Loud. Aggressive,''' said Wade.
``The truth is sometimes we wish our people would be a whole lot more pushy than they are. I mean in the sense of being willing to witness. But ... the mission work we're trying to do is not one of force. It's one of sharing. It's not coercion. It's not intimidation. It's about trying to flesh out in our poor lives the love of God which was given to us in Jesus Christ,'' said the pastor, whose church sponsors Mission Arlington, a social ministry of national renown.
``We're trying to love people, and we're trying to hear them, to listen carefully to where their needs are.
``One of the mistakes a lot of people make when they're trying to do a good thing is they don't listen very carefully to what people really need. We assume we know what you need, so we'll do it for you whether you want it done or not.
``Jesus was really different than that on more than one occasion, but on one occasion in particular. A beggar who was blind cried out for him: `Mercy. Lord have mercy on me.'
``But the crowd, the disciples said, `He doesn't have time for you.' ... (Jesus) stopped the whole entourage and said, `Bring that fellow here.'
``When he got there, Jesus looked at him, the blind man, and he said, `What do you want me to do for you?'
``That's an amazing question. I mean it seems obvious, doesn't it, that he wanted to be able to see?'' Wade asked the reporters. ``But Jesus doesn't assume that. He asked if there was something else.''
Following that example is the goal of his church members, the preacher said. ``Baptist people are learning really to listen to what people are saying their hurts are and their needs are, and do it in the spirit of Christ, which is the spirit of truth.
``We have a convictional gospel. It isn't up for sale or up for change. It's written. We know who we are and what we're about. But we're here to love and to care and to share and then to wait.
`` ... I suspect that if you go to the Baptist churches in your area, you'll see them feeding the hungry, tutoring children, making a place for the homeless, doing day care, helping with schools, ministering to abused women and children. You'll find them doing all kinds of things and still not at the cost of the Good News.
``The way we say it in our church is, `We want to do everything we can that's good for you if we can. We'll do what we can. But the best gift we have to give is Jesus, not anything else.''
The preacher didn't even draw a breath.
``And everybody is beginning to understand that because in social problems all across America, where people are being introduced to faith commitment and the gospel is being shared, people are called to faith (and) lives change. Otherwise they don't change much.''
So there you have it. That's how the Baptists see themselves. Old and yet new.
LENGTH: Medium: 74 linesby CNB