KOTV reports:

…the ORU Board of Regents voted to separate the university from Oral Roberts Ministries.

***

…there will be an announcement regarding a multi-million dollar donation from one of the regents to Oral Roberts University.

A number of donations were also announced for the university. Mardel and Hobby Lobby will donate $8 million to the university. Two million dollars will come from another donor. And, Mardel and Hobby Lobby will donate an additional $70 million if the university meets certain requirements.

More details and info on the KOTV site (click the link).

Update: And more. 

UPDATE: KOTV also reports the news and posts the email sent from ORU.

***

AP (via Fox 23) is reporting that Richard Roberts has resigned as president of ORU:

Embattled Oral Roberts University president Richard Roberts handed in his resignation today.

In a statement e-mailed from George Pearsons, chairman of the ORU Board of Regents, Roberts’ resignation is effective immediately.

Roberts and the university have come under fire since a lawsuit was filed by three former professors accusing him, among other things, of misusing school funds to support a lavish lifestyle.

Pearsons says the school’s regents will meet Monday and Tuesday to determine action in the search process for a new president.

Until then, executive regent Billy Joe Daugherty will continue to assume administrative responsibilities as school president and work with Oral Roberts, who is chancellor and founder of the evangelical school.

In his resignation letter, Richard Roberts said he loved the school with all his heart, including the students, faculty, staff and administrators.

As previously noted, I was honored with an invitation to speak at this year’s pastors’ conference at the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma annual meeting. The pastors’ conference audio, including sermons by Ted Kersh, Todd Fisher, Danny Akin, Ruffin Snow, Al Mohler, and myself, plus testimonies by Bob Hammon, Bob Woods, and Jerry Fielder, is now online here.

Shocking revelation from Willow Creek Community Church:

If you simply want a crowd, the “seeker-sensitive” model produces results. If you want solid, sincere, mature followers of Christ, it’s a bust. In a shocking confession, Hybels states:

“We made a mistake. What we should have done when people crossed the line of faith and become Christians, we should have started telling people and teaching people that they have to take responsibility to become ’self feeders.’ We should have gotten people, taught people, how to read their Bible between services, how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own.”

Read the whole story on Baptist Press.

It’s taken me a while, but I finally have been able to sit down and make a few comments regarding the annual meeting of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, held at Moore First Baptist Church, Nov. 12-13, 2007.

The first session of the meeting was held Monday night, the rest of the day having been devoted to the annual Pastors’ Conference. This year’s Pastors’ Conference was different in that I was asked to bring a message. When asked to do so, I agreed. Only later did I learn that I was to be on the program with such individuals as Drs. Ted Kersh, Todd Fisher, Ruffin Snow, Danny Akin, and Al Mohler. That’s pretty tall cotton for little ole me to be walking in. I just prayed that God would give me His message then preach it through me. I’ll let others be the judge of whether He did or not. I can say that I thoroughly enjoyed each of these other men’s messages. I have been told that audio of the Pastors’ Conference messages is soon to be posted online, and I will update this post when that happens.

The rest of the meeting was a series of reports from the various departments and entities, praise, worship, and some fine sermons.

There is much good news. Oklahoma Baptists continue to give generously to our Cooperative Program. Falls Creek is making great strides, and BGCO President, Alton Fannin, has developed a simple, beautiful called “The Blessing,” wherein individuals who have been blessed by Falls Creek are simply asked to make a one-time $100 contribution to help eliminate the remaining debt from the new tabernacle project. Un-pledged outstanding debt is $5.5 Million (from a project that was over $30 Million). If just 55,000 persons will give “The Blessing” the Falls Creek debt will be retired. With the number of Oklahoma Baptists, 55,000 is well within reason, plus it gets everyone involved in the Falls Creek project rather than the less than 8,000 who have contributed so far.

Other good news is that Oklahoma Baptist Disaster Relief continues to meet the needs of victims of tragedy all over the country. Oklahoma Baptist Homes for Children continue to provide hope and homes to children who desperately need them, in addition to expanding our crisis pregnancy services. Baptist Village Retirement Communities continue to meet our obligations to seniors who need a caring environment in which to spend their latter years.

There was also some bad news. Baptisms (thus salvations) were again down. Dr. Jordan encouraged us to be in deep prayer for God to move in our state, acknowledging that we need to sow down the state before we expect another great harvest. His message was much-needed and well-received. Sermons from the annual meeting, not including the Pastors’ Conference, are available here. I encourage you to listen to Dr. Jordan’s message.

We are also sad that we will be saying goodbye to Bill Green as Associate Executive Director of the BGCO. Bill has served for 17 years, and I don’t know a finer, more genuine man of God. His last big task with the convention was overseeing the Falls Creek project, which he did excellently. He will remain with the Singing Churchmen and Churchwomen until at least 2009. I, for one, am glad we’ll still have him around. We officially said goodbye with a presentation and reception Monday night. I was afraid we might not get to sing “Saved! Saved!” under his leadership one last time. When we arrived for the second day of meetings and I saw the tympani on the stage, my fears were assuaged, and he forevermore led us. It was a beautiful moment, and I detected more than a few tears around the room.

The business items were fairly standard and should appear in the Baptist Messenger next week. One item of new business was presented. Dr. Bruce Mason, Director of Missions for the Craig-Mayes Baptist Association (my association), noted that since the Mothers’ Day offering, which used to wholly benefit the Oklahoma Baptist Homes for Children, was divided equally between the children’s homes and Baptist Village Retirement Communities, the total amount of the offering has decreased significantly. He then moved that the Mothers’ Day offering be applied only to the Children’s homes. After one speaker for and one against the motion, it was referred to the Executive Committee for further investigation.

I share Dr. Mason’s concern about the offering. I also believe we have an obligation to both widows (and widowers, i.e., seniors) and orphans (children). Therefore, I sent a letter this week to Alton Fannin and the Executive Committee urging them to investigate the possibility of restoring the Mothers’ Day Offering to the children’s homes and instituting a new, Fathers’ Day Offering for the retirement communities. We have separate missions offerings (Annie Armstrng for North America and Lottie Moon for International), and I think it makes sense to give both the children’s homes and retirement villages their own pies rather than expecting them to share one pie, which has shrunk significantly. I look forward to hearing back about the progress on this motion.

The business and sermons all make for a great, though long, day, indicated to me when my wife leaned over and said, “All this Baptist stuff is wearing me out!” right before the supper break.

The final session of the meeting this year included no “official” business. Instead, we focused on the business of prayer for spiritual awakening. Dr. Greg Frizzell, spiritual awakening specialist for the BGCO, led us as we prayed together in thanksgiving, repentence, desire for God to work in and through us and our churches. It was a blessed time.

One last thing I want to mention about this year’s meeting. It was a great time in which Jeane and I got to get closer to some of the other pastors in our assocation. Nov. 14th marked my 3rd anniversay at Strang First Baptist Church, my first pastorate. I have yet to have grown close to any of my fellow pastors in the association, and God really blessed the time we had together in Moore. I appreciate the great acquaintances we developed with Kevin Lancaster, Tom Landsaw, Ryan Goodrich, Larry Jackson, Ralph Heiney, Jess Dinsmore, and Bruce Mason (and many of their wives). I look forward to growing the relationships.

The hit of this year’s Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma annual meeting was Sam Porter’s report, wherein there was a real Gundy-esque feel. See what you think:

[HT: Wes Kenney]

Bonus: Asleep at the Wheel music video of Suzy Boggus doing “Old Fashioned Love” with Ray Benson and Lyle Lovett doing “Blues for Dixie”