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Tag: NorthHaven Church Norman OK

In Oklahoma and Georgia, two Baptist congregations bade farewell to their buildings last Sunday

Some pastors may dread having to move their congregation from a prominent church building into former retail space with a liquor store on the property. But not Jakob Topper, senior pastor of NorthHaven Church in Norman, Okla.

“I’m actually excited about the future and about seeing what we can do when every committee meeting doesn’t revolve around how we’re going to pay our bills and instead put more focus on how we can be faithful to the gospel of Jesus Christ,” he said.

Jakob Topper

NorthHaven held the final Sunday services in its 18-year-old, nearly 23,000-square-foot facility Dec. 18, the same day Northeast Baptist Church said goodbye to its building across the country in Atlanta. Both Cooperative Baptist Fellowship-affiliated congregations faced crippling property and maintenance costs in an era complicated by the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and declining religious affiliation.

Helping guide Northeast Baptist through the eventual sale of its building and move to alternative spaces is a process denominational leaders will be increasingly facing in the years ahead, said Jody Long, executive coordinator of CBF Georgia.

Years of research have documented that more churches are closing than opening in the U.S. on an annual basis, and that average attendance in U.S. congregations has dipped to 65 or fewer. Pew Research Center found the share of Americans who identify as Christians plummeted from 90% to 64% from 1990 to 2020.

These and other trends will continue to place pressure on faith groups going forward, Long said. “I anticipate these kinds of conversations becoming more frequent, especially for smaller churches that have been struggling this year and struggling with maintaining the level of ministry they had been providing, with money, building issues, all the things cropping up even more in the post-pandemic era.”

Mitch Randall, longtime pastor at NorthHaven and Jakob Topper’s predecessor, leads the final children’s moment in Sunday worship in the building.

At NorthHaven, the need to move was in part created by the death of a founding member whose contributions represented a significant portion of the church’s annual budget, Topper said.

Suddenly, little could be spent on missions and ministry, with 50% of revenues consumed by building expenses and 40% for staff, he added. “It was pretty abysmal, and we very quickly realized we were not going to be able to stay here and be faithful Christians at the same time.”

The next year was spent walking through the process that led eventually to the sale of the building to a nondenominational church. “It was really a time devoted to painting the picture of what life could be like without crippling debt and what life would be like devoting our time to missions and ministry.”

Topper added that the downtown grocery store space NorthHaven will share with a Habitat for Humanity chapter beginning next month is a context better suited to the congregation’s mission.

“Very few people from our ZIP Code go to our church. We are moving to the city center to a location that is right across the street from Norman High School. In a lot of ways, this move is very symbolic of what we are trying to do.”

The former grocery store where NorthHaven will move.

The new location also is closer to the University of Oklahoma campus.

NorthHaven’s move is one a lot of other churches will be going through in the future, Topper predicted. “We’re probably on the front end of something that’s just going to keep happening.”

And for NorthHaven, that’s a good thing. “It’s kind of cool to figure out what the next season of church is going to look like,” he said.

Selling its building and moving into rented space also will be a blessing for the congregation at Northeast Baptist Church, said Pastor Jonathan Spencer.

“The church has become increasingly inclusive and progressive in the last few years, and we’re going to really emphasize inclusivity, including being welcoming and affirming (of LGBTQ people). We were dismissed from the Atlanta Baptist Association three years ago for that,” Spencer said of the tight-knit congregation that is changing its name to Open Circle Community Church.

Jonathan Spencer

The church had known for years that dwindling attendance — currently at fewer than 60 people per week — was not enough to maintain a building meant to hold 400 worshipers. Renting to a school for refugee children prolonged ownership for a couple of years, but the outcome was inevitable, he said.

“You could look at the numbers for income and membership and see the handwriting on the wall in terms of sustainability,” Spencer explained. “And in some ways the pandemic hastened us getting to this point in making a dramatic move.”

The coronavirus outbreak forced the congregation out of the building for a time which, in turn, made it easier to make the transition by the time of the October closing. “It would have been more complicated to share space with the school if we had been fully occupying the building the way we were before the pandemic,” the pastor noted.

Candlelight service at Northeast Baptist Church

Beginning Jan. 8, the congregation will be worshiping in the chapel at nearby Embry Hills United Methodist Church. The two congregations share the spirit of inclusion and will cooperate in some of the host’s existing ministries, Spencer said. “We’ve held two joint worship services with them already, and we have a strong, collaborative relationship with them and really resonate with them.”

Open Circle Community Church will retain its Baptist identity and will remain open to what its next chapter may be, he pledged. “We are going to look at this as a chance to reimagine and see how things go.”

Being there for Northeast Baptist Church’s transition was bittersweet because it meant letting go of sacred space while embracing a new future, Long said, adding that CBF Georgia already is in conversation with other congregations facing similar situations. “It’s picking up speed and folks are going to have to make some tough choices.”

One of his biggest tasks in the process is to assure congregations and ministers they are not to blame for the cultural and social trends driving church closures, Long said.

“At the end of the day, it’s generally not your fault. Some people take it personally. Some will say, ‘We are not going to give up.’ I applaud that effort, but at some point if we don’t think clearly about the opportunities before us, we miss out on ways to imagine and reimagine ministry in a new era.”

Related articles:

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Before you make church property decisions, consider your mission and calling

Let’s reimagine how your church property might serve the community | Analysis by Brian Foreman and Justin Nelson

December 22, 2022
Baptist freedom advocate Robert Loyd “Bob” Stephenson dies at 91

Robert Loyd “Bob” Stephenson, a retired geologist and prominent philanthropist and advocate for Baptist freedom from Norman, Oklahoma, died March 20. He was 91.

Robert Loyd “Bob” Stephenson

Stephenson grew up in Blair, a farming town in southwest Oklahoma. He graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a degree in geology. He played baseball for the Sooners from 1947-1950 and was named an All-American in 1950. Stephenson was drafted into the U.S. army in 1952 and played in armed forces leagues in Japan for two years. After that, he went on to play professionally, including one major league season for the St. Louis Cardinals, batting .243 in 1955.

After baseball, Stephenson worked for 10 years as a petroleum geologist for an Oklahoma oil company. He then co-founded Potts-Stephenson Exploration Company in Oklahoma City which he led with Ray Potts for more than 50 years.

Stephenson was an outspoken advocate for a free Baptist press and served more than a decade on the board of directors of Associated Baptist Press, the predecessor of Baptist News Global, during its nascent years.

“ABP needed to come on stream because that was the only arm of publication that would tell the truth,” Stephenson said in a 2011 interview. “ABP was one of the things that spun off from problems with the Southern Baptist Convention that had to exist. If we didn’t have them the news wouldn’t get out.”

Other organizations benefiting from Stephenson’s generosity have included the University of Oklahoma, First Baptist and NorthHaven churches in Norman, Mainstream Oklahoma Baptists, Texas Mainstream Baptists and the Oklahoma Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

Lavonn Brown, longtime pastor of First Baptist before his retirement in 1999, was Stephenson’s pastor for three decades and among his closest friends and confidantes.

Stephenson as a St. Louis Cardinal

“Bob and I were friends for 50 years,” Brown said. “He was a man of strong principle who grew up in a healthy religious culture that guided the quality of his life, including his business career, his faith and his remarkable generosity.”

Stephenson was presented ABP’s Founders Award, the news organization’s highest honor, in 2011. The award honors individuals and organizations that embody the founding principles of ABP/BNG and support its mission through significant professional or financial contributions.

David Wilkinson, BNG’s executive director and publisher since 2008, praised Stephenson as “a person of character and conviction.”

“Like another straight-shooting and influential Baptist layman, the late John Baugh, Bob had little patience for pastors and denominational leaders who chose to straddle the fence as fundamentalists methodically gained control of the SBC in the 1980s and 90s,” Wilkinson said.

Stephenson championed a free religious press even after his service on ABP’s board of directors.

“He understood the value of an independent and reliable source of news and opinion for Baptist Christians and churches and he always put his money where his mouth was,” Wilkinson said.

Greg Warner, ABP’s executive editor for 17 years, also described Stephenson as a “fierce advocate for press freedom.”

“Bob understood that Baptist polity and the priesthood of the believer require fair, thoughtful and persistent journalism,” Warner said. “In humility, he might sit quietly in board meetings and shy away from lofty debates about journalistic strategies. But if the fundamental right of Christians to know came under threat, Bob would spring to alert, and you would find yourself arrayed with others behind him in the march into battle.”

Stephenson is survived by his wife of 70 years, Norma, and their two children, seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

A formal memorial service in Norman will be scheduled at a later date.

The family requested that memorial gifts in remembrance of Stephenson be directed to the NorthHaven Church’s building fund, to a Baptist cause Stephenson supported or to another charity of choice.

March 25, 2020
Trump insult making life difficult for overseas missionaries

It’s been a couple weeks since Donald Trump reportedly used the term “shithole” to describe third-world countries and the people who live in them.

The outrage over the comment made to senators in a meeting on immigration, and which the president eventually denied, has faded as Trump deals with newer scandals, including revelations of a tryst with a porn star.

But there are those who continue to simmer about the “shithole” reference, including American Christians who have served as long- and short-term missionaries in some of the African and other nations Trump disparaged.

Those interviewed by Baptist News Global reported being not only offended by the derogatory comment but also embarrassed by the obscenity hurled at people and cultures they have come to know and love. They also expressed a concern that the president’s insult will likely make it harder for missionaries to perform the already difficult job of sharing and living the gospel where they live.

And perhaps worst of all, these ministers said, is that the attitude behind Trump’s comments ignores the enviable personal and spiritual depth of many who live in “shithole” countries.

Mitch Randall

Mitch Randall experienced that consistently during church mission trips to African nations.

“The Western world has a tendency to gauge everything through economic lenses, and to look at Third-World countries as underdeveloped,” said Randall, executive director the Baptist Center for Ethics and former pastor at NorthHaven Church in Norman, Okla.

And it’s true that poverty and health crises abound, he said.

“But at the same time, you go into these countries and you meet, look in the eye and break bread with people who are incredibly rich both spiritually and in relationship,” Randall said.

Returning from those trips, often to distribute mosquito nets, Randall said he was told by church members that it was they who were ministered to and healed by the people they had gone to help.

Residents in economically struggling nations know they face hardships, Randall said, but they also have direct experience in trusting God to help them through it. That brings them closer to their creator than many who have more material wealth.

“In many instances they are more wealthy than you or I could ever imagine because they cherish life … and have a relationship with God that puts us to shame sometimes.”

Not only that, but it can also be argued that Trump and other Americans are in no place to criticize the nations Trump insulted.

That was one of the points Ryan Clark made in an as-yet unpublished essay titled “Shithole Missions.”

“I have been blessed to live in an spend significant time in shithole countries,” said Clark, manager of global resources for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and a former CBF field personnel who served in the Philippines and has visited and worked in African nations, as well.

Of all of those countries, he added, his favorite is one where safe drinking water and health care are unavailable to many. It is also one where churchgoers are massacred as they worship, where armed militias roam freely in certain areas, where religious minorities are persecuted, and where a quasi-civil theocracy controls the nation, Clark wrote.

That country, Clark told BNG, is the United States.

Ryan Clark, a CBF official and former field personnel to the Philippines, helps a girl with her shoes. Clark was so upset by President Trump derisive remarks about Third-World countries that he wrote an essay suggesting the U.S. isn’t much better off in some categories. (Photo/Courtesy of Ryan Clark)

“I was pretty upset when I wrote it,” he added. “It was cathartic.”

The essay also was meant to educate.

“If you are a growing, evolving person, you eventually get to the point where you realize other kinds of people and cultures have something to contribute, and are valuable and good and lovely,” he said.

Making insulting comments about other nations is counterproductive to sharing the gospel, said Craig Martin, a television producer and former managing director of communications for the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board.

Craig Martin

“Probably the biggest embarrassment is having the president of the country you’re from be so disparaging about the country where you’re working,” said Martin, a member of the BNG board of directors.

“What they’ll face is skepticism about why they are there in the first place.”

But Martin added that Trump’s statement did not surprise him.

“What shocked me was the defense of Trump, even from missionary kids who grew up overseas,” he said.

Martin said it’s disheartening to see evangelicals abandon gospel values to support a president who agrees with them on abortion.

“He can disparage things and make himself so opposite to the gospel and still get your approval,” Martin said. “I don’t get it.”

Sue Smith said she also experienced surprise and dismay when Trump reportedly made the remarks.

Smith was in El Salvador when the president’s remarked become public.

“Essentially, the president’s words were embarrassing,” said Smith, a former missionary to Costa Rica who now, with her husband Greg, leads a ministry for immigrants in Fredericksburg, Va.

“We were experiencing the warmth and hospitality of El Salvador and of its people, meeting leaders from all walks of life who are committed to improving their communities, helping those in need, and sharing Christ,” she said in an email to BNG. “They weren’t sure what to say, and neither were we. It was uncomfortable, to say the least.”

The language is painful to El Salvadorans because they have been allies of U.S., and they participated in the recovery from 9-11, Smith said.

Also damaged is the American standing abroad.

“I think it’s harder for us as ‘Americans’ to be taken seriously or to be trusted,” she said. “In the eyes of the world, we’ve dropped a notch on the ladder of respect. And that extends to missionaries and those representing the North American church.”

January 25, 2018
Did Robert Jeffress contribute to SBC decline with pro-war, pro-Trump statement?

As Christian denominations continue their downward spiral, some experts say the rapid descent is caused by the increasing politicization of the church and the erosion of church-state separation.

A Gallup poll released last month found that the percentage of American Protestants identifying with a denomination has plummeted from 50 percent to 30 percent since 2000.

Minsters and congregational coaches note that high-profile Christian arguments over issues like gay marriage and immigration are a major turnoff for those inside and outside congregations.

And, one minister said, organized faith took one on the chin this week when Southern Baptist megachurch pastor Robert Jeffress’ declared President Trump has God’s blessing “to take out” North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Mitch Randall

“The more denominations continue to become politically centric in their … application of theology, the more we are going to see society reject that denominationalism,” said Mitch Randall, pastor at NorthHaven Church in Norman, Okla.

Tracking the decline

Gallup identified two key trends driving the decline. One is the continuing growth of the “nones,” those Americans who claim no religious identity.

The percentages of other groups — Catholics, Mormons and non-Christian faiths — have remained roughly stable since 2000, Gallup said.

The growth of “nones” from 10 percent to 20 percent was accompanied by a decrease in Protestant adherents from 57 percent to 47 percent, Gallup said.

“Therefore, there are fewer Protestants of any kind in the American population today, and the pool of those who identify with a specific Protestant denomination is smaller,” Gallup reported.

Another reason for the decline is that fewer and fewer Christians identify themselves by denomination, even if they and their churches are part of one.

Those most inclined to identify with a denomination are Baptists, at 10 percent, Gallup said. Another 3 percent identify as Southern Baptists — which is down from 8 percent in 2000.

The SBC’s decline has been well documented. Baptist News Global reported that decline in June, including a drop of more than 77,000 members from 2015 to 2016 alone.

Gallup made similar observations.

“Southern Baptist membership data show that their churches have lost members, and it may also be those who may actually attend an official Southern Baptist church increasingly identify as just “Baptist” rather than as Southern Baptist, specifically.”

‘Church-state separation vitally important’

Whatever the denomination, Americans see churches embroiled in controversy and want no part of it, said Eddie Hammett, a North Carolina-based church and clergy consultant.

“The general population looks at us as a place they don’t want to be,” he said.

Highly publicized internal debates over issues like gay marriage, the economy and politics is a major turn off to many.

“They don’t want to be in that fight. They want to be in a place of healing and hope,” Hammett said.

Another challenge is generational.

Eddie Hammett

“The primary leaders in most denominations are of the Boomer and Builder generations, and their value system is not what is going to attract the younger generations,” Hammett said.

No wonder, he added, “the ‘nones’ are taking over.’”

South-Carolina-based church and clergy consultant Mark Tidsworth sees another factor dragging down denominations.

“Churches have blended culture with their faith so much that now that the culture is radically changing, it’s leading to a decline in participation in church,” he said.

The positive side to the trend is the opportunity to rediscover a more authentic form of Christianity.

“We can re-examine our faith and return to the First Century, where the church was a movement and counter-cultural,” he said.

What’s needed, Randall said, is a return to valuing scripture and the Constitution.

“As Christians and followers of Jesus we should always go back to Scripture and more importantly to what Jesus did and said,” he said.

Jeffress cited Romans 13 — that people are subject to government authority — in backing any Trump action against North Korea. But, Randall said, he overlooked the previous chapter, which calls for Christians to practice hospitality and to be “patient in affliction.”

There’s nothing wrong with Christians who want to focus on the primacy of government authority — until they have the president’s ear, as Jeffress does.

“It’s why church-state separation is vitally important to our culture today,” Randall said.

August 11, 2017
Why Christians should think hard before holding Seder meals during Holy Week

Hosting Seder meals during Holy Week has become deeply entrenched among some Christian congregations. But both supporters and opponents of the practice say there needs to be careful reflection about intentions before engaging in it.

Some Jews and Christians say the ritual meal commemorating the Israelites’ liberation from slavery in ancient Egypt is so uniquely Jewish that it doesn’t belong in churches or Christian homes.

Besides, the practice post-dates the time of Christ — negating the idea Jesus was participating in a Seder during the Last Supper, rabbis Yehiel Poupko and David Sandmel recently wrote for Christianity Today.

Christians who want to experience a Seder should instead do that through a Jewish host, the rabbis said.

Other reasons why Christians should not celebrate Seders are easy to find through a quick Google search.

But supporters of the practice can also be found.

“Intention matters a great deal,” said Joshua Stanton, associate rabbi at Congregation B’Nai Jeshurun in Short Hills, N.J.

Christian-led Seders that stay true to the intention and history of the ritual are not a concern to many Jews, Stanton said. But it is offensive when churches appropriate the Seder and present it as a Christian ritual.

Authentically prepared and practiced seders can be ways bring Christians closer to their Jewish roots. (Photo/Edsel Little/Creative Commons)

Stanton said he’s hearing of more and more of that. He said there is a rise in Christians holding Seders in their homes “without a real context or understanding of what the symbols mean.”

Stanton said he’s seen situations where Jews were informed, incorrectly, the Seder is Christian because Christ celebrated it during the Last Supper. Other concerns include removing the Seder and its meaning from the original context and even renaming the ritual.

“We as Jews will be told [the Seder] is not uniquely ours and we are not doing it right,” he said.

But there is also much to celebrate about Christian interest in the Seder.

The symbols inherent in the practice, such as redemption and renewal, resonate with members of both faiths. It’s what gave rise to the practice of holding interfaith Seders.

“This is an opportunity for Christian and Jewish togetherness,” Stanton said.

Connecting with family

But it is the Jewishness and Old Testament symbolism that draws NorthHaven Church in Norman, Okla., to the Seder, said Pastor Mitch Randall.

The congregation has held a Seder on Maundy Thursday evenings for the past nine years.

Mitch Randall

Randall said they are aware the Seder was not practiced in the time of Jesus. But the history and symbolism observed during the meal reach deep into scripture — just as the Passover meals of Jesus’ time would have done.

NorthHaven’s Seder aims squarely at helping participants connect those religious and cultural dots.

“We respect Jesus’ Jewishness and his Jewish faith,” he said. “It behooves Christians to remember that Jesus and his disciples were good, practicing Jews.”

By commemorating the suffering of the Jewish people in bondage, the Seder forces participants to confront modern-day suffering.

“It reminds us of the heartbreak of oppression and slavery around the world,” he said.

The Seder also is a glimpse into the family dynamic that Christianity has lost over the centuries, Randall added.

Both faiths were family oriented for a time, but Christianity eventually became a church- and sanctuary-based tradition.

“We no longer meet around the table for deep experiences,” he said.

“The observance of the Seder helps us not only connect with the Old Testament and the Old Testament narrative, but it also helps us connect with family.”

April 10, 2017
Interfaith events expand in wake of 2016 election

It’s getting real in a whole new way for Americans involved in local, regional and national interfaith movements.

Donald Trump’s election is seeing to that.

Religious folk who thought they had an uphill battle against sporadic prejudice, here and there, are wondering if anti-Muslim bigotry may soon be codified and methodically applied across the nation.

Mitch Randall

“What the president-elect has spoken about during this election cycle should have alarmed every American, and every Baptist, who cherishes religious liberty,” said Mitch Randall, an ardent proponent of ecumenical and interfaith efforts and pastor of NorthHaven Church in Norman, Okla.

“Every person has a right to worship, or not worship, their God as their conscience dictates.”

Randall said he spoke with the imam of an area mosque about this topic during a recent gathering of the Oklahoma Conference of Churches.

“I let him know personally if he needs a Baptist minister to stand beside him, then I would be glad to do that,” Randall said.

And he isn’t alone in making such a pledge.

‘I support your right of religious freedom’

“It’s a message that’s being delivered in cities like Boston, where 2,600 people poured into a mosque Sunday night for an interfaith service, and Nashville, Tenn., where residents created a chalk mural of support outside a mosque,” the Christian Science Monitor reported this week.

The message was also communicated in Phoenix, Ariz., where the mayor and hundreds of others lined up to purchase food from a Lebanese baker whose store was vandalized.

InterfaithEvent: A number of interfaith events have been held around the nation since Donald Trump’s election. Religious leaders pledge support of Muslims. (Photo/Creative Commons)

The support has also come from sources some would consider unexpected.

“I’m here today, to say as a Southern Baptist, I want you Muslims to know, I love you, I care about you, I support your right of religious freedom,” Bob Roberts said in remarks included in the article. Roberts, who is from Keller, Texas, made the comments in a mosque in Washington D.C. “I will stand with you, and there are many of us.”

A Presbyterian minister told a gathering of the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization that not all conservatives are alike.

“My guess is that most of you didn’t vote for our president-elect, but you need to know that not every Trump supporter is a bigot,” Burns Stanfield said, according to the Christian Science Monitor. “I know that because I have people in my own congregation whom I love, who voted for the man, and they are decent good people. People who like most of us want decent wages and an apartment they can afford, affordable health care.”

‘Importance of solidarity’

Events like those in Boston, Phoenix and Nashville are much more than symbolic acts, Randall said.

First, they communicate to laypeople that Christian leaders are taking stands on the behalf of the vulnerable. In turn, everyday believers may be inspired to do the same where possible.

For others, seeing Baptists and Jews, Muslims and others working together may be the only opportunity they get to glimpse the humanity of the members of other faiths.

“It helps them understand the importance of solidarity,” he said.

It also lets those fearful of Muslims know they have powerful allies in other faiths.

“It helps them process what is going on in the world and to understand terrorists do not represent all Muslims, Randall said.

December 19, 2016
9/11 inspired Baptist, Muslim to find Bible-based brotherhood

What a difference 15 years makes.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, the United States has endured two gut-wrenching wars and a resulting debate over immigrants, refugees and Muslims that divides the nation.

But there also has been enough time since 9-11 to inspire new perspective and growth for those willing to seek it, some religious leaders say.

The north face of Two World Trade Center (south tower) immediately after being struck by United Airlines Flight 175. (Photo/Wikipedia)

The attacks inspired local and nationwide interfaith movements that have deepened the faith of participants and fostered relationships between Christians, Jews, Muslims and other traditions where there had been few or none before.

Baptist minister Mitch Randall and Muslim leader Imad Enchassi could be considered posterchildren of that post-9/11 reality.

“I hesitate to call 9/11 a blessing, but one blessing that came from that tragedy was the opportunity to seek out new friendships, to understand new cultures and to really make a connection with people with whom I would not have made a connection prior to that,” Randall, the pastor at NorthHaven Church in Norman, Okla., told Baptist News Global.

Prior to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon that day in 2001, many American Muslims were content to wall themselves off from mainstream American life, safe in their homes and mosques, said Enchassi, spiritual leader of the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City.

Afterward, mosques opened to surrounding communities, Muslims reached out to law enforcement and Muslim artists, comics and books came out of the woodwork. Muslims also embraced people from other faiths.

“As we speak today, the more hardships we go through the more it solidifies our interfaith community,” Enchassi said.

‘Brothers from another mother’

Struck by the significance of Sunday’s 15th anniversary, Randall penned a blog post last week titled “Growing Up After 9/11.”

He began with a citation from First Corinthians in which Paul recalled giving up childish reasoning for adult thinking and actions.

September 2001 awoke Americans to that very choice. They were confronted by the reality that their nation is hated by many around the world, he wrote, giving them the option of descending into that hatred or rising above it.

Randall told BNG his decision to meet and understand Muslims has pushed him to do a lot of growing up – including in his own faith.

Through Enchassi and other Muslim friends, Randall said he gained a deeper understanding of Christianity in the Bible.

Mitch Randall and Imad Enchassi

It was an awakening, for example, to learn that Abraham’s sons Isaak, from whom Judaism and Christianity are said to emerge, and Ishmael, who is identified with Arabs and Islam, maintained a relationship after the latter’s exile.

That is evidenced by a passage in Genesis in which the two later bury their father.

It is a model for Christian-Muslim understanding, he said.

“That is a biblical relationship that needs to be touted and practiced in our culture,” Randall said.

The brotherhood of Isaac and Ishmael has inspired the relationship between Randall and Enchassi, the imam said.

In the years since 9/11, the two have worshiped in each other’s sanctuaries, participated in interfaith panels and both appeared in a documentary titled “Different Books, Common Word: Baptists and Muslims.”

“Our relationship has been solid ever since,” Enchassi said. “We are more than just friends.”

In fact they are family, he said in a comment linking to Randall’s blog.

“Honored to call Mitch Randall a brother from another mother,” he said.

September 12, 2016
Oklahoma church paves way on interfaith and missions

By Jeff Brumley

Last fall, an Oklahoma Guardsman and member of a Baptist church met an Afghan doctor who had just immigrated to the United States after years interpreting for American combat troops.

The soldier essentially adopted the Muslim man — and so did NorthHaven Church, a Baptist congregation in Norman, Okla.

The relationship has continued to deepen, church member Randy Ridenour said.

“It was telling last Sunday when the Afghan doctor comes to church and the adopting family is out of town for the holidays,” said Ridenour, a chaplain in the Army Reserve and a philosophy professor at Oklahoma Baptist University.

The man was welcomed even while NorthHaven continued being what it is: a Baptist church.

“NorthHaven stands for loving other people regardless of what sort of faith community they come from and people find that refreshing,” he said. “And they don’t expect you to compromise your own beliefs.”

A maturing dialogue

The congregational culture that makes possible a welcoming atmosphere for non-Christians at NorthHaven was instilled from the church’s beginning in 2004, Pastor Mitch Randall said.

Randall said the founding members began dialoguing with local Muslims after one of them reached out to the church and other moderate Christians.

“They began discussing how they could do interfaith dialogue in a more intimate way,” he said. “Our congregation went up to a Turkish cultural center, met the members and dined together — and that was reciprocated.”

From there the practice continued and grew, putting NorthHaven on the map not only in Norman but around the state — and in its primary affiliation, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship — as a church on the cutting edge of interfaith dialogue and ministry.

Randall and his congregation established relationships with other Muslims in the state, a fact that became headline news in Oklahoma at the 10-year anniversary of 9-11. Baptists joined with Jews and Muslims in a highly visible memorial and panel discussion.

It all goes back to making a decision between being Christians who are suspicious of others groups, or Christians who see other people as children of God, Randall said.

“The way we see the world determines how interfaith dialogue and relations mature over the years,” he said.

NorthHaven’s early openness set the stage for continuing those kinds of relationships.

“It was very quickly established that the church’s world view is we don’t look at the world with suspicion but with curiosity and openness to discover the commonalities we have with other humans.”

‘Ecumenical with Baptist tendencies’

Another contributing factor, Randall said, is that NorthHaven worshiped in a Presbyterian church the first three years of its life.

Now, it’s the Baptist congregation doing the welcoming since its membership requirements were altered to allow those baptized as infants or through sprinkling to join the church.

NorthHaven maintains its Baptist identity by continuing to use full-immersion baptism for those who want it or who have not been baptized before. The church will not baptize infants.

Otherwise, previous baptisms are recognized as honored by God, he said.

The result has been an influx of new members originating from other Christian traditions, including Catholicism.

“We have a lot of [former] Catholics,” he said.

It also affects the culture of the church.

“We describe ourselves as an ecumenical community with Baptist tendencies,” Randall added.

‘What is my worldview?’

One of the ways those tendencies play out is through overseas mission.

Five or six years ago, NorthHaven brokered an arrangement between itself, the CBF of Oklahoma and the Ghana Baptist Convention for a multi-year mission and missionary initiatiave in the African nation.

Projects include mosquito net distribution and supporting a Ghanaian home missionary who has been planting churches.

“We took the lead, which is an important facet of how missions are changing today,” he said of congregational-led projects.

Reaching around the globe to help the poor or across town to embrace members of other faiths is part of the same impulse.

“It goes to the idea where many moderate Baptists find themselves,” Randall said. “What is my worldview?”

If it’s about being part of a group that is suspicious of others, “that will be detrimental to any type of interfaith dialogue or mission.”

But moderate Baptists usually identify more with the persecuted after their painful experiences in the Southern Baptist Convention, he said.

“They know what it’s like to have people say things that are untrue about you” and “have false claims leveled against you,” Randall said.

‘Make an impact on the world’

For Ridenour, NorthHaven’s interfaith work has provided practical benefits.

Ridenour served in Afghanistan last year. He was stationed at a United Nations base that was home to troops of more than 30 nationalities plus a large number of Afghan personnel.

“You can imagine how much interfaith we had going on,” he said.

While much of his interfaith experience comes from on-the-job training, much of it also comes from NorthHaven, Ridenour said.

“One of the things I value in the church, particularly for me in my context as an Army chaplain, is it’s a necessary complement to my Army ministry.”

One of those lessons is realizing that engaging with people of other faiths does not mean watering down his own beliefs.

“Just having a genuine dialogue with another person about what they believe doesn’t mean you are compromising your own beliefs in any way,” he said.

Ridenour said he’s grateful to belong to a congregation where he can continue to learn those lessons even when he’s not overseas.

And the church’s approach is also one that can help it and other congregations effectively share the gospel in a post-modern culture.

That kind of dialogue also is needed to build relationships between Christians and those of no faith, or between generations.

“That’s the kind of ministry Christians need to adopt if we really want to make an impact in the world,” Ridenour said. “Because we no longer live in a culture where Christianity is taken for granted.”

— Baptist News Global’s reporting on innovative congregational ministries is part of the Pacesetter Initiative, funded in part by the Eula Mae and John Baugh Foundation.

January 7, 2015
Baptist church strives to help Afghan Muslim find welcome, work

By Jeff Brumley

A Baptist congregation in Oklahoma has taken in an Muslim man who fled Afghanistan to escape Taliban retribution for interpreting for American forces.

The folks at NorthHaven Church in Norman say their acceptance of the 31-year-old interpreter stems from a congregational culture of interfaith hospitality. The Afghan physician says the church’s welcome and aid confirm what he has learned working with Christians in a Kabul medical clinic.

“They were helping my nation,” said the interpreter, whose name is being withheld for security purposes. “I called them brothers and sisters.”

But the encounter between the church and the Afghan also stems from a complex and seemingly improbable mix of international politics, global war and one Baptist church’s desire to live its interfaith ministry.

This relationship between Baptist and Muslim comes amid a years-long struggle by current and former U.S. military members to help Iraqi and Afghan interpreters to acquire Special Immigrant Visas to escape retaliation from terrorists.

So far, more than 6,000 such visas have been granted to Iraqis, but the process has been extremely slow for interpreters from Afghanistan, according to the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project.

In 2009, Congress passed the Afghan Allies Protection Act, making available 7,500 Special Immigrant Visas.

“By the end of 2012, only 268 visas had actually been issued and an estimated backlog of 5,300 applications languished at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul,” the assistance project said.

As U.S. and other allied forces begin their draw-down in Afghanistan, those still waiting for visas fear for their lives as the Taliban seek to punish anyone who helped wage war against them.

Even the Afghan interpreter said he fears for his parents and siblings.

“It’s becoming very unsafe,” he said. “Many translators’ lives have become endangered and some have lost family members (because they) worked with the U.S. Army.”

The man obtained his visa with the influence of a number of U.S. Army officers for whom he had interpreted dating back to the beginning of the war in 2001. He arrived in the United States on Aug. 30.

NorthHaven Senior Pastor Mitch Randall said the Afghan’s resume is impressive.

“It’s full of colonels and lieutenant colonels” all vouching for his courage and character.

He arrived in Randall’s office Thursday morning along with Kelly Lynn, a lieutenant in the Oklahoma National Guard and the member who brought the man to church Oct. 19.

A Muslim’s presence in worship was no big deal at NorthHaven due to its long, consistent involvement in interfaith efforts, Randall said.

Randall said his own involvement in interfaith alliances, and his church’s hosting of interreligious events and personalities has shaped NorthHaven into a place where members are accustomed to encounters with members of other faiths — even in their own sanctuary.

“We realize Muslims are as diverse as Christians and we realize many of them are loving people,” Randall said.

Knowing that about NorthHaven made member Lynn feel totally comfortable inviting the former interpreter to church with him.

“It’s different than most of the Baptist churches I belonged to in the past,” said Lynn. “It’s a very open-minded, community oriented church.”

Lynn met the Afghan through a fellow National Guard officer who had worked with the interpreter in Afghanistan. Lynn was asked if he could employ the man in his T-shirt printing business.

He has done so, but his attendance at Sunday worship may help the Afghan find work closer to his calling as a physician.

Randall Thursday morning said he planned to call friends in the Oklahoma City area who work in the medical field to see if any positions are available for the man, who currently is not licensed to practice medicine in the United States.

Randall said he also planned to turn to social media, which he did with a Thursday afternoon Facebook plea.

“After spending two hours with this young man and hearing his story, I am calling on everyone to rise up and help …” Randall said in his post. “We have an opportunity to help someone who has sacrificed so much. Let’s find him a job! Please share to spread the word.”

The former interpreter said it’s hard to believe how helpful NorthHaven has been to him.

“How shall I thank them?” he said.

October 24, 2014