onthemove_51903

Posted: 5/19/03

On the Move

Robby Buie has resigned as youth minister at Lakeway Church in The Colony.

Dave Collett to First Church in Flower Mound as youth minister.

Eddie Frazier to New Zion Church in Bonham as interim pastor.

05/20/2003 - By John Rutledge

tidbits_51903

Posted: 5/19/03

Texas Tidbits

SFA project gets grant. The Texas Baptist Missions Foundation has secured a $135,000 matching grant from the Mabee Foundation of Tulsa, Okla., to help the Stephen F. Austin University Baptist Student Ministries purchase and remodel a building. Coupled with the completion of the BSM's $1.1 million capital campaign, the campus mission will use the grant funds to double its facilities and ministry possibilities. Gifts can be marked SFA-BSM and sent to Texas Baptist Missions Foundation, 333 North Washington, Dallas 75246.

WINNERS in the statewide Bible Drill and Speakers' Tournament finals in Fort Worth are Laura Bankhead of Champion Baptist Church in Roscoe, second place in Bible Drill; Anna Summersett of First Baptist Church of Texarkana, second place Speakers' Tournament; Mandy Alling of Trinity Baptist Church in Amarillo, tied for first place in Bible Drill; Brittany May of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, first place in Speakers' Tournament; and Jacob Eunice of Northside Church in Del Rio, tied for first place in Bible Drill. They will go to Atlanta to represent Texas in national competition. Not pictured are Youth Essay winners: First place, Cheri Petrusky, and second place, Rachel Tarver, both from First Baptist Church in Clyde; and third place, Zachary DeVine from First Baptist Church in Farmers Branch.

Baylor gets big gift. Baylor University will receive $19.4 million this month when the Marrs and Verna McLean Foundation Trust is dissolved. Baylor is among several Texas educational institutions to benefit from the fund, established in 1953 by the McLean family of Beaumont. Proceeds from the fund have aided key Baylor programs over the last 50 years. One-third of Baylor's gift from the fund dissolution will go to the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

Grover awarded. Tomi Grover, a Baptist General Convention of Texas restorative justice consultant, has received the Albert and Ethel Marsh Memorial Award from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. The annual award goes to the outstanding Southern Baptist doctor of education student on the basis of scholarship, experience and leadership potential as determined by the committee for advanced studies in the seminary's school of educational ministries. Grover is working on her dissertation about the effect apartment ministries have on crime rates in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.

05/20/2003 - By John Rutledge

imb_51903

Posted: 5/19/03

IMB trustees make budget cuts; Willis retiring

FRAMINGHAM, Mass.–International Mission Board trustees have restricted the number of new missionary appointments due to budget concerns.

At the May 6-8 meeting in Framingham, Mass.–at which trustees fired 13 missionaries for not affirming the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message–trustees grappled with a $10 million budget shortfall.

Despite increases in giving through the Southern Baptist Convention's Cooperative Program and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, contributions have not kept up with the number of new missionaries being sent out.

05/20/2003 - By John Rutledge

seminaries_51903

Posted: 5/19/03

Kelley proposes offering for
SBC seminaries; Criswell name possible

By Mark Wingfield

Managing Editor

A president of one of the Southern Baptist Convention's six seminaries has proposed creating an annual offering for the seminaries on the scale of the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for international missions and the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American missions.

05/20/2003 - By John Rutledge

tornado_51903

Posted: 5/19/03

Tornado took deacon for a wild ride

By Lonnie Wilkey

Tennessee Baptist & Reflector

FAYETTEVILLE, Tenn. (ABP)–A historic church in southern Tennessee was leveled by a tornado May 5, but the survival of one of its deacons was hailed as “a miracle of God.”

05/20/2003 - By John Rutledge

missouri_51903

Posted: 5/19/03

New Missouri convention meets

WINDERMERE CONFERENCE CENTER, Mo.–Messengers to the Baptist General Convention of Missouri held their first annual meeting May 2-3, electing a full-time pastor, a bivocational pastor and a laywoman to leadership.

Bill Miller, elected president of the fledgling convention, is pastor of First Baptist Church of Farmington, Mo. Jimmy Albright, elected vice president, is pastor of Wyatt Baptist Church in St. Joseph, Mo., and professor of archaeology at Missouri Western State College. Sondra Allen, elected secretary, is a member of First Baptist Church of Jefferson City, Mo.

The convention was organized last spring as an alternative to the Missouri Baptist Convention after fundamentalists gained control of the existing convention's governing boards and began enacting sweeping changes.

05/20/2003 - By John Rutledge

network_51903

Posted: 5/19/03

Lotz proposes Third World network

SWANWICK, ENGLAND–An international Baptist mission agency that would send and support Baptist missionaries from Third World countries has been proposed by Denton Lotz, general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance.

The agency, Lotz said, would support those who feel called by God to missionary work beyond their borders but lack the financial resources to answer the call.

Lotz made the proposal at the BWA Summit on Baptist Mission in the 21st Century, held May 5-9 at Swanwick, England. Baptist leaders from 60 countries spent a week focused on the evangelistic challenges they face as they seek to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ to all the world.

05/20/2003 - By John Rutledge

iraq_missions_51903

Posted: 5/19/03

Should Christian 'soldiers' march onward in Iraq?

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)–Now that the United States has won the physical war in Iraq, should American Christian missionaries join a spiritual one there?

05/20/2003 - By John Rutledge

letters_51903

Posted: 5/19/03

TEXAS BAPTIST FORUM:
Focus on family issues

I am writing in response to Ben Macklin's letter (May 12) expressing concerns about non-Southern Baptists preaching at the Pastors' Conference, June 15-16 in Phoenix.

He states, “Our Cooperative Program dollars given to the SBC should not fund a single non-Baptist. Period!” He has nothing to worry about. The Pastors' Confe

rence is funded solely through the offerings collected at the conference, product sales of recorded sermons, and the hosting church, in this case, First Baptist in Dallas.

I encourage Texas Baptists to attend. This year's conference will focus on family issues, particularly ministering to ministers' families.

05/20/2003 - By John Rutledge