Missouri Mess, Part 3: Coverage and Concerns

April 15th, 2007 | Comments Off | Posted in » Baptist Issues, In the News...

Last Wednesday, the MBC Pathway indicated in its news coverage of David Clippard’s dismissal that the report presented to the Executive Board leading to his dismissal may be available later in the week. Unfortunately, it has not been as quick in coming as many would have liked… the latest word is that it will be released on the MBC Pathway website tomorrow.

The problem with this? In this age of near-instant information, Missouri Baptists are rapidly growing frustrated at the lack of concrete information regarding the reasoning for Dr. Clippard’s dismissal. Couple this with the turmoil our convention has been through in recent years, the questions surrounding the process of Dr. Clippard’s dismissal, and now secular news coverage of the situation that seemingly provides more detail than our own state paper, and, well… let’s just say it doesn’t do much to defuse the situation.

Now, I know patience is a virtue, and I’m certain that everyone is doing their best in this. But I can’t shake the impression that public relations portion of this situation has been very poorly handled (if not flat-out botched), and it concerns me more about the action taken. I’m anxious to see the report, and hope it has not been “sanitized” to the point of uselessness in informing Missouri Baptists as to the real reasons behind Dr. Clippard’s dismissal.

My biggest concerns?

• Why wasn’t Dr. Clippard given an opportunity to address the Executive Board in regard to the report? I can understand him not being present while the Board was considering their course of action, but during report presentation and after their decision, what would have been the harm?
• If there were no ethical, moral, or legal failures, what was so damning in the report that the Executive Board would dismiss Dr. Clippard within such a short time of hearing the report (if I understand correctly, there was roughly a two-hour period for the report to presented, the Board to discuss it, and action to be taken)? How much time was really spent in prayer, carefully considering the decision?
• If this was simply a leadership issue (it happens), where did everyone go wrong in allowing it to grow to this point? Do not other MBC staff and the Executive Board also bear much responsibility in this matter (put differently, why just cut off the head)?

I don’t know… maybe I’m letting this situation bother me too much, but it just doesn’t smell right to me, as an average Missouri Baptist layperson. No matter how hard I’ve tried to look for the best in everyone in this, it simply continues to look like more of the same stuff our convention has been dealing with for the past several years.

I hope and pray that I’m wrong.

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Missouri Mess, Part 2: Just the Facts

April 11th, 2007 | 1 Comment | Posted in » Baptist Issues, In the News...

As I wrote in my last post, the Missouri Baptist Convention’s Executive Board voted to fire our Executive Director, David Clippard, during its meeting yesterday.

Today, I’m going to simply summarize the facts we know at this point, and share some links to news articles covering their action. If I’ve missed anything important, or if I’ve misstated anything, PLEASE correct me.

The facts:

• In 2002, David Clippard left his role with the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma to serve as the MBC’s Executive Director. The vote by the Executive Board, approving his hire, was 48-2.
• At the December Board meeting, a motion was made by Wesley Hammond to create a committee was to “investigate rumors affecting the character of some of our members which, if true, would render them unworthy of leadership, and cast doubt on our credibility and our integrity as an executive board.” The committee was to consist of five members: the MBC 1st VP, 2nd VP, recording secretary, and two past presidents. The vote to create this committee passed by a margin of 29-19, with 3 abstentions.
• Yesterday, the investigative committee presented their report to the Executive Board. Their recommendation to the Board was to dismiss David Clippard from his role as Executive Director. The vote of the committee was 4-1 in favor of that recommendation.
• Prior to the review of the report by the Executive Board, MBC 2nd VP Jim Cogdill submitted his resignation.
• The Board entered executive session to review the report. After extended deliberations, a secret ballot vote was taken considering the investigative committee’s recommendation. The vote was 44-7 to dismiss David (with 1 abstention).
• David Clippard was barred from the executive session, and was not given an opportunity to address the Board regarding the report.
• Although David was interviewed by the committee in the process of developing the report, it is unclear if he has seen the final report.
• A copy of the report (edited by legal counsel) will be available soon.
• David Tolliver, Associate Executive Director of the MBC, was selected to serve as interim Executive Director. David has served the SBC and MBC in a variety of ways, including serving on the Executive Committee of the SBC, MBC President, and other positions. He is also known as a leader in Project 1000.
• There is currently no timeline specified for the selection of a new Executive Director.
• A joint statement was released by the Executive Board and David Clippard.
• Reporters from Associated Baptist Press and from Word and Way were forced to leave the meeting at various times (aside from periods of executive session). It is unclear as to whether these were the only media asked to leave.
• A meeting is scheduled for April 12th at the Baptist Building in Jefferson City, so that MBC staff can show their appreciation to David.

News Sources:

• Baptist Press, “Mo. Baptist board forms investigating committee”, December 15, 2006
• Baptist Press, “Report precedes Mo. exec’s dismissal”, April 11, 2007
• Missouri Baptist Pathway, “Missouri board dismisses Clippard as exec”
• Missouri Baptist Pathway, “MBC Executive Board issues official statement”
• Missouri Baptist Pathway, “Board elevates Tolliver to interim executive director”
• Associated Baptist Press, “Clippard, embattled Missouri Baptist exec, fired in closed-door session”, April 10, 2007
• Word and Way, “MBC’s Clippard fired in closed-door session”

Posted in Baptist Issues, In the News... | 1 Comment »

Missouri Mess…

April 10th, 2007 | 4 Comments | Posted in » Baptist Issues, In the News...

It’s no secret the Missouri Baptist Convention is a mess. Today, that translated into the firing of our executive director, David Clippard.

It is a sad day when anything like this occurs. I can only hope and pray that the reasons for the firing were legitimate and not simply some sort of political power play.

More to come as news breaks and information becomes available. For now, pray for David, and pray for our convention.

NOTE: I’ve compiled some of the facts surrounding this, as well as news coverage of it. Check it out here.

Posted in Baptist Issues, In the News... | 4 Comments »

Masters Champ Credits THE Master

April 9th, 2007 | 2 Comments | Posted in » In the News...

As I was watching the Masters golf tournament yesterday, one question kept coming to mind… who is this Zach Johnson guy, and what in the world is he doing beating Tiger?

I didn’t think much more about it until reading this article on MSNBC.com today. Afterwards, I had to make use of google to find out more.

As it turns out, he’s not only the new Masters champ, he’s a Christian whose devotion to THE Master plays a big role for him, even on the course.

Check it out:

• On Tuesday, Zach and his wife were sharing their faith at the August Golf Breakfast
• In this post-Masters interview, Zach states, “regardless of what happened today, my responsibility was to glorify God and hopefully He thinks I did.”
• This St. Petersburg Times article further elaborates on his faith.

Pretty cool stuff.

Posted in In the News... | 2 Comments »

Following Our Shepherd

April 9th, 2007 | Comments Off | Posted in » Christian Living, Devotions / Bible Studies, My Life / Family

For the past three weeks, my Sunday School class has been working through Jesus’s teaching, “I am the good shepherd”. Yesterday’s discussions were particularly meaningful in regard to the ebb and flow of our faith, and I thought I’d share. There’s quite a bit more meat I’d like to share beyond this, so I may actually make this a series of posts.

Anyway, on to our passage…

John 10:1-21
¹“I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. ²The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. ³The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ⁴When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. ⁵But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” ⁶Jesus used this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was telling them.

⁷Therefore Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. ⁸All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. ⁹I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. ¹⁰The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

¹¹“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. ¹²The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. ¹³The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

¹⁴“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me — ¹⁵just as the Father knows me and I know the Father — and I lay down my life for the sheep. ¹⁶I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. ¹⁷The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life — only to take it up again. ¹⁸No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”

¹⁹At these words the Jews were again divided. ²⁰Many of them said, “He is demon-possessed and raving mad. Why listen to him?”

²¹But others said, “These are not the sayings of a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”

You know, there’s something about being compared to sheep that just doesn’t settle well. Think about it… what are some characteristics of sheep? They’re pretty well defenseless, not all that bright, sometimes a bit stubborn, they flock together, and usually just go along with the crowd, they don’t smell very well… need I go on? If we’re sheep… we really don’t have a lot of desirable qualities.

If you read the scripture above, where Jesus shares that He is the good shepherd, you’ll notice a couple things about sheep that stand out as notable… even desireable. Look at verses 3-5… “the sheep listen to his voice”… “the sheep follow him because they know his voice”… “they will never follow a stranger… they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice”.

In thinking about my life, I’m forced to realize that I wouldn’t make a very good sheep. The ebb and flow of my faith confirms it, and if I were to venture a guess… yours as well.

How so?

Sometimes, we’re good little sheep… following our shepherd just a few steps behind. His voice is crystal clear… it’s easy to follow, not only because we can’t help but hear him, but because we find ourselves comforted by his love and protection. In those times, we find that we can follow Him anywhere… even when we can see the wolves waiting for us up ahead, because we know our shepherd will protect us. We might get bitten or clawed while passing through them… but we won’t be devoured wholly… our shepherd takes the brunt of the attack.

However, in spite of going through those experiences, walking closely to our shepherd and coming through the troubles unscathed, we often find ourselves walking behind him through green pastures. Trouble is nowhere to be seen, and we sheep, in our stupidity, allow ourselves to fall far behind our shepherd. He continues on ahead of us… and His voice gets harder and harder to hear. We go astray as night falls, mistaking a stranger’s voice for our shepherd’s… and we fall under attack. By the time we call out to our shepherd and he arrives to rescue us, we’ve been beaten, bloodied, and scarred.

Isn’t it frustrating? We know our shepherd… our Savior Jesus. We know how much He loves us… we know how He protects us… we know that He will never lead us astray… we know that following Him closely results in blessings beyond our imaginations. Yet we stray. We think we can do it on our own. We think we can provide for ourselves better than He.

And we always find ourselves wrong… scarred and battered. And yet we do it anyway.

How awesome would it be if we were all better sheep?

Posted in Christian Living, Devotions / Bible Studies, My Life / Family | Comments Off

Wait Until Then…

April 3rd, 2007 | 1 Comment | Posted in » Books

A couple weeks back, I received a couple of Randy Alcorn books to read and review. Having three kids, it was pretty exciting to me to be receiving these books… they’re directed toward kids. I’d like to say that Jeffrey, Jenna, and Allison were a great help in reviewing these, but unfortunately, they’re all a bit too young to really have a firm grasp on the topics Randy writes about. Perhaps my review of the first of these, “Wait Until Then”, suffers a bit from not really having a good kids’ perspective.

Anyway, “Wait Until Then” is the story of a boy and his grandfather, and their shared love of baseball. The boy suffers from spina bifida, and he longs to walk and run and play baseball, as other kids do. The grandfather, a former major league ballplayer, is dying of cancer. Through their common love of baseball, the boy learns from his grandfather about the future joys of heaven… of freedom from pain and suffering… of having redeemed bodies we may be able to use to play baseball… of seeing loved ones who have already passed on to be with Jesus… and of knowing that all of this is available through a faith relationship with Jesus.

All of the above is great… there’s a lot of weighty topics included, which should make for some good teaching opportunities for parents (ties in nicely with the companion book, “Heaven for Kids”, don’t you think?). And the illustrations? ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL work from Doron Ben-Ami.

However, I hate to say it, but the book just doesn’t fare as well as I would have hoped. To me, it felt much less like a story and more like a theology lesson for kids. Not that theology is a bad thing, of course, but it would seem to me that Randy could have done a better job leading us to points rather than simply having the characters state the facts. And the ending? Well… to avoid spoiling it, let’s just say I really didn’t care for it.

All said, I have to just give the book a so-so rating. I’d definitely recommend that you look over it in your favorite Christian bookstore before buying.

Posted in Books | 1 Comment »

Harris vs. Warren… the God Debate

April 3rd, 2007 | Comments Off | Posted in » In the News..., Worth Reading

Check this out… noted atheist Sam Harris takes on influential pastor Rick Warren in a debate over the existence of God.

Here’s the story, over on MSNBC.com.

Interesting stuff… I just wish the whole discussion were available (it appears that either the moderator interrupted discussion with questions or the debate has been edited).

Posted in In the News..., Worth Reading | Comments Off