Posted: 5/30/03

Baylor to build new style of student housing

WACO–Baylor University broke ground May 16 on a $33 million, 212,000-square-foot student housing complex.

The North Village Residential Community is the first housing facility constructed on campus since 1967. It is scheduled to open in fall 2004.

Adding more on-campus housing is the second imperative of Baylor 2012, the university's 10-year strategic plan.

The university intends to house at least 50 percent of undergraduates on campus by 2012. Currently, freshmen are required to live on campus, and most other students live off-campus.

“By increasing the number of students who remain on campus during their college careers, we can foster a sense of community within the Baylor family and build a true learning environment inside and outside the classroom,” said President Robert Sloan.

North Village will be built between the new Dutton Avenue office and parking facility and the Rogers Engineering and Computer Science Building. Three more residential villages are planned at Baylor during the next 10 years.

In North Village, 180 of the 600 beds will be reserved for engineering and computer science students, who must apply and be admitted to the designated center for living and learning.

The remaining beds will be available for upperclassmen from other academic disciplines.

“This unique living-learning environment will foster a balance between serious intellectual pursuits and social interaction both in the classroom and living room, as well as encourage close interaction with classmates and with professors,” said Benjamin Kelley, dean of the School of Engineering and Computer Science.

Although the living-learning centers concept has been implemented previously at schools such as the University of Maryland, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Ohio State University, Baylor's residential community will be the first of its kind in Texas.

Over the next five years, Baylor hopes to have living-learning centers for students interested in international affairs, leadership, arts and sciences, and fostering a civil society. In most instances, the centers will require students to enroll in at least one common course, often will require a special admission process and may require additional expectations.

Posted: 5/30/03

Baylor regents re-elect McLane chairman

WACO–Drayton McLane of Temple has been re-elected chairman of the Baylor University board of regents.

McLane, chairman of the Houston Astros and McLane Group, will work alongside vice chairs Randy Ferguson, president of RWF Investments in Austin; Brian Harbour, pastor of First Baptist Church of Richardson; and Laree Estes Perez, vice president of Loomis, Sayles and Co. in Albuquerque, N.M.

In addition to officer elections, regents at their May 16 meeting adopted a $320.5 million budget for 2003-04 and approved plans to construct another parking garage.

Regents also approved stopping admissions into the doctor of education degree program for kindergarten through grade 12 administration and for higher education administration. The move also impacts the master of education degree for principal preparation.

According to a Baylor news release, the change was made “to reallocate resources to study and develop new graduate programs to more effectively serve public and private education.”

President Robert Sloan explained: “While we believe it is necessary to discontinue these current graduate programs in the School of Education, we are committed to continuing our efforts to develop new approaches in the preparation of leaders to serve in public and private education, both at the K-12 and higher education levels.”

The new budget provides for hiring 43 new faculty and staff and for a 27 percent increase in scholarships and fellowships. It also provides $3 million in renovation and deferred maintenance work.

It includes faculty raises based on merit. Staff salary adjustments will not be determined until September or October, said Baylor spokesman Larry Brumley, and are dependent upon enrollment numbers for freshmen and transfer students.

The increase in next year's budget “is being fueled by the second year of our new tuition structure,” Brumley explained. This was the first year for a new flat-rate tuition plan, from which previously enrolled students–mainly next year's juniors and seniors–were exempt.

The parking garage will be built on the current site of the Mark Twain Apartments, bounded by Cottonwood, Daughtrey, First and Second. The $10 million parking facility will support the new Baylor Sciences Building and the McLane Student Life Center.

Under terms of its current relationship with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, Baylor's board of regents elected three-fourths of the board itself, with the BGCT electing the remaining one-fourth. At the May meeting, regents re-elected nine of their members to new three-year terms: Mary Chavanne-Martin of Houston, David Sibley of Waco, Donell Teaff of Waco, Carl Bell of Dallas, Toby Druin of Waxahachie, Phil Lineberger of Sugar Land, McLane, Belinda Reyes of San Antonio and Jim Turner of Dallas.

Posted: 5/30/03

Bible Bar packs a nutritional
punch with inspired formula

By Tom Feran

Religion News Service

ORLANDO (RNS)–Different people find different things in the Bible. Tom Ciola found a recipe–for snack food.

The directions weren't precise, he admits. Coming up with the right formula, which added a few organic ingredients for taste and texture, was “quite a challenge.”

But through trial and error, and with a bit of outside help, Ciola finally produced the Bible Bar. Resembling a granola bar, it's billed as a “highly effective appetite regulator” and a “great way to control hunger pangs while still providing your body with the highest level of biblical nutrition.”

“God was the first nutritionist,” Ciola said from his office in Orlando, Fla., noting that early in the Bible God commands, “You shall not eat of every tree in the garden.”

“It may be symbolic,” Ciola said, “but I've done a lot of research on the Garden of Eden story, and I believe the Lord was saying something about improper nutrition. The Lord put a high price on good eating habits and health.”

Ciola found inspiration for Bible Bars, however, in Deuteronomy 8:8, “where the Lord uses seven species of food to describe the goodness of the land. That intrigued me. I've been in the nutrition business all my life, and I've also been a Bible student all my life.”

The seven foods are wheat, barley, honey, olive oil, figs, pomegranates and grapes. All are laden with symbolic value and, Ciola learned, sometimes surprising nutritional value.

“I wasn't the first to stumble on the importance of these foods,” he said. “Many ancient Bible scholars and rabbis have studied the subject, and I found a number of theories about their importance. I thought, from a nutritional standpoint, as long as the Lord sees these as important foods, let's see if we can put them in a form people can eat day to day.”

That was seven or eight years ago. Ciola approached a candy company with the idea. The results, from a taste standpoint, were “absolutely horrendous.”

So he put the idea aside, “got hot on it again” three years ago, and finally got it to work with the help of a small Texas company–and the addition of organic puffed rice and raspberry flavoring.

This was something he could sink his teeth into.

Besides being a serious Bible student, Ciola has a background as a natural health advocate and bodybuilder. He opened a combination health food store and fitness club in Utica, N.Y., in 1970, and won the Mr. New York State title in 1975–the same year he founded National Health Products, which produces sports nutrition supplements. He organized the Natural Bodybuilders of America, which sponsored the first Natural Mr. America competition, excluding steroids and drugs.

He also wrote the nutrition guide “Moses Wasn't Fat,” which he titled after realizing the Bible said Moses died at 120, “and his eyes were not dim nor his natural vigor diminished”–making him “an excellent physical specimen right up to his death and the epitome of everything my book stood for,” Ciola said.

Using the Bible Bar as the foundation, under National Health he started House of David, a distributor of “spiritual health products” in a growing field that includes such items as Testamints and edible Nativities.

House of David, at houseofdavid.net, handles such products as Bible Bread, Back to the Garden meal replacement powder and the new Bible Granola–as well as the chewy Bible Bar, which has 190 calories, 6 grams of fat and retails for $1.89 at about 2,500 health-food stores and religious bookstores.

“I've been accused of commercializing the Bible,” Ciola said, “but I'm a believer, and I believe I will have to answer someday for my actions.”

No problem there, he said–in the end, “it all goes back to the beginning. God does have a plan for us to eat properly.”

One more thing, Ciola added. Stay away from underripe apples.

Posted: 5/30/03

Baptist Briefs

Baylor names Schmeltekopf provost emeritus. Baylor University's retiring provost and vice president for academic affairs, Don Schmeltekopf, has been named provost emeritus. Schmeltekopf has accepted a two-year appointment as the Chavanne Professor of Christian Ethics in Business at Baylor's Hankamer School of Business. He also will teach an ethics course at the university's Truett Seminary and a course in higher education administration in the School of Education. During Schmeltekopf's 12-year tenure as provost, Baylor has added four academic divisions–Truett Seminary, the School of Engineering and Computer Science, the School of Social Work and the Honors College.

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Ken Hemphill awards a master of arts in missiology degree to his wife, Paula, while presiding over his final commencement ceremony this month.

Terminated missionaries to speak. Two veteran missionary couples who left the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board because of the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message crisis will address the breakfast meeting of the Mainstream Baptist Network June 27 in Charlotte, N.C. Larry and Sarah Ballew of Macau and Houston and Charlotte Greenhaw of Brazil will speak at 7 a.m. in the Charlotte Convention Center. Reservations should be made by calling (915) 659-4102 or e-mailing trusdle@txbc.org.

CBF repositions for Iraq. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has shifted its focus for post-war ministry in Iraq from refugees to meeting immediate needs as well as long-term infrastructure needs of the population within Iraq. CBF is preparing to restart ministry among the Kurds in northern Iraq that had to be suspended because of the military campaign. To date, CBF has channeled more than $40,000 from churches, individuals and existing CBF relief funds toward relief efforts in Iraq.

Golden Gate rethinking music. Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in Mill Valley, Calif., will continue to offer music courses but will change the way it structures them, trustees were told in their spring meeting. Only 24 students are enrolled for the seminary's two master's degree programs in music, and "that is not enough to sustain them," reported Academic Vice President Rick Durst.

World Day of Prayer scheduled. Baptists will participate in the Day of Prayer and Fasting for World Evangelization June 8, focusing on more than 1 billion Chinese who have not heard the Christian gospel. Scattered throughout the world, from China, to Malaysia, to Mexico, and even Paris, the Chinese represent distinct ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

Pastor elected Georgia editor. Gerald Harris, pastor of Eastside Baptist Church in Marietta, Ga., has been elected editor of the Christian Index, newspaper of the Georgia Baptist Convention. He succeeds Bill Neal, who took a forced early retirement. Harris, 62, is a former president of the Georgia convention and currently serves on the Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee.

Coppenger speaks at Midwestern. Mark Coppenger, who was fired as president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1999 for problems related to anger management, returned to the school May 13 to speak in chapel. His topic was bivocational church starting. Coppenger, who now lives in the Chicago area and is a pastor, will be named an honorary alumnus of Midwestern during the annual alumni luncheon June 18.

Posted: 5/30/03

Faith still stands at center of Buckner communities

By Scott Collins

Buckner News Service

A generation ago, churches stood at the center of nearly every Texas town, and religious faith permeated the communities. That spirit still lives at the five retirement communities operated across Texas by Buckner Retirement Services.

Buckner retirement residents “grew up when the church was literally the center of town,” explained Kenneth Harpster, chaplain at Buckner Villas in Austin. “There may have been one or two different churches–the Methodist, the Baptist or whatever. Sometimes the different denominations shared buildings, so if you joined on the Methodist Sunday, you became a Methodist, and the same goes for Baptist or whatever.

“Most all activity of the town revolved around the life of the church, so that is a very familiar part of the lives of many of the retired,” he added. “There are many good memories from those days.”

Senior adults who were raised in a time of faith and family still possess a strong faith that cannot be separated from who they are, according to Harpster and other Buckner chaplains. That's one reason Buckner chaplains and retirement community directors integrate faith throughout their communities.

“The faith piece is just kind of woven among almost everything we do,” said Ron Warner, executive director of Buckner Westminster Place in Longview. “It's not that we have a chaplain over here and we have chapel services over here, but it's woven into who we are … . It is part of everything we do.”

The same philosophy guides Craig Garrett, chaplain at Calder Woods in Beaumont.

“I am a firm believer that you can't segment a person's life,” Garrett said. “You can't … say we are only going to care for a certain part of a person's life. Health is something that encompasses more than one area.”

“As people get to know us, or they get to learn about our campus, there are some things that they readily pick up,” explained Mary Alexander, executive director of Calder Woods. “They pick up that we are built on a Christian foundation. When they hear that we have a chaplaincy program, they learn that we care about all people, not just Baptists. We care about people from all walks of life.”

Glenn Shoemake, executive director of Buckner Retirement Village in Dallas and the campus chaplain, agreed that faith weaves his community together.

“For me, part of what makes this a community is that by and large, our residents have devoted a significant part of their life to spiritual values as well as other values. When they came to the village, they were looking for an environment in which that spiritual part of their lives was still something that was valued and supported.”

Buckner chaplains work daily to meet the spiritual needs of community residents.

“My role is to comfort, to be that representative of God people may be looking for,” Harpster said. “I see that the particular faith needs of the residents are met. I attempt to make sure they have someone from their faith tradition to come see them and offer whatever is appropriate for them in their tradition.”

One of the most important roles he plays, Harpster said, is in the “ministry of presence,” to be a “representative of God in their lives.”

A major part of a chaplain's ministry with senior adults focuses on building relationships, said Rick Webb, chaplain at Buckner Westminster Place in Longview. “Aging is a process of changing relationships because relationships are lost.”

And while Buckner chaplains provide ministry to community residents, they also offer residents opportunities to minister to others. Residents often pray for each other and the Buckner staff during weekly prayer meetings and Bible studies. And they minister to other residents who are sick or have lost a family member.

The senior adults at Calder Woods prove that people continually grow spiritually, Garrett said.

“I have people come to Sunday School and almost every time, somebody will say: 'You know, I never thought of it that way before. I never heard that before.' That kind of floors me sometimes because these are men and women who have grown up in their churches. But often they teach me things. I have to be on my toes.”

Posted: 5/30/03

Tennessee ties link Buckner to new shoe partner

By Scott Collins

Buckner News Service

DALLAS–Lon Shoopman thought shoes would be a great way to tie First Baptist Church of Madisonville, Tenn., with Buckner Baptist Benevolences in Dallas.

After visiting the Texas-based ministry in March, he returned to Tennessee and presented the idea of collecting 1,750 pairs of shoes for the Shoes for Orphan Souls campaign sponsored by Buckner Orphan Care International.

The goal was significant because First Baptist Church is celebrating its 175th anniversary this year.

The project itself was significant because both the church and Buckner Benevolences trace their origins to the same family.

But Shoopman didn't tell his congregation and the Madisonville community to stop at the historic number. Instead, more than 6,000 pairs of shoes were donated and delivered by church members to Buckner May 5.

“We feel like this is our offering to celebrate the anniversary,” said Greg Moses, who, along with three other church members, drove a truck loaded with the shoes more than 900 miles from Madisonville to Dallas.

“You can tell both were started by a Buckner,” added church member Allan Webb.

Daniel Boone Buckner founded the church in Madisonville in 1828. More than 50 years later, in 1879, his son, R.C. Buckner, started Buckner Orphans Home in Dallas. Next year, Buckner Benevolences will celebrate its 125th anniversary, and the church in Madisonville will be asked to participate.

“Daniel Buckner instilled two great things in his family and in the church that he founded–a concern for missions and a concern for people, particularly children,” said Shoopman, who has been pastor of the church 28 years.

During his trip to Dallas this spring, Shoopman visited the two-story log cabin at Buckner Children's Home. The cabin, the birthplace of R.C. Buckner, was built by Daniel Buckner in Madisonville and moved to Dallas as a historic landmark in 1912.

“To come and see this cabin is like going to Jerusalem,” Shoopman said. “This is where the legacy started. For me to stand where I know Daniel Buckner stood and espoused his concerns (for missions and children) to his children and to the church, that's just an amazing experience, a holy experience.”

Shoopman and members of his church say they are amazed at the similarity of First Baptist and Buckner Benevolences.

“We're a real missions-oriented, purpose-driven church,” said Brian Sizemore. Those characteristics also define Buckner, he added.

Robert Koch noted that the connection between the church and Buckner shows in the common goals of missions and ministry to orphans. During the shoe collection in Madisonville, members charted their progress by placing cutout footprints on the wall for every 100 shoes donated. So many shoes came in that the footprints “went all over the wall,” Koch said. “We ran out of room.”

Buckner President Ken Hall said reconnecting the church and Buckner Benevolences has been a “blessing for me personally and for our Buckner family in Texas. … It's been like finding a long-lost family member.”

Shoopman, however, had learned this spring just how deep the connection between the church and Buckner remains.

“When we celebrated our 175th anniversary March 4, I thought it would be neat during the service to have somebody read a passage about Daniel Buckner. I chose this fellow who has a really nice voice. He and his wife had been in the church six months or so,” the pastor explained.

“So he read this, but he started crying during the reading. I found out after the service that this couple had adopted a daughter from Buckner, and she is now a missionary in Nicaragua. He had no idea our church had any connection with Buckner in Texas, but he knew Buckner had provided him with a daughter.”

Posted: 5/30/03

Builders make Lubbock
home for three-month project

By Ken Camp

Texas Baptist Communications

LUBBOCK–Texas Baptist Men Retiree Builders expected high winds and rising temperatures when they agreed to tackle a construction project on the South Plains in late spring and early summer. But nobody told them to be ready for the mercury to drop 55 degrees in less than two days.

“Welcome to West Texas,” one of the builders quipped.

When temperatures plummeted from 103 to 48 degrees, volunteers bundled up in layers of any available clothes–a hodgepodge assortment of sweatshirts, flannel shirts, overalls and windbreakers. And they kept working to erect the framework for the new Living and Learning Center of My Father's House Lubbock.

“These are the most amazing people I've ever seen,” said Shirley Madden, executive director and founder of My Father's House Lubbock.

My Father's House currently operates at Iglesia Bautista Templo in Lubbock, offering Christian Women's Job Corps training. That ministry, originated and sponsored by Woman's Missionary Union, teaches job skills and life skills to low-income women. Texas Baptists help support Christian Women's Job Corps through gifts to the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas missions.

The Living and Learning Center–being built on 4.29 donated acres of prime real estate–will add a residential component to the Christian Women's Job Corps model. The center will include 18 two-bedroom apartments, classrooms, a commercial kitchen and day care and laundry facilities where women can gain hands-on job experience.

The Meadows Foundation recently approved a $250,000 grant for the building project, and another Texas-based foundation provided a $150,000 no-interest loan based on pledges made to the project. When My Father's House has $500,000 cash in hand, it will be eligible for a matching grant from the Mabee Foundation, Madden said.

Volunteers from each of the Texas Baptist Men Builders groups–crews who specialize in building churches, camps, furniture or cabinets–have teamed up for the Lubbock project, providing volunteer labor valued at $1.5 million.

The heavy, load-bearing steel framework for the Living and Learning Center proved a challenge for volunteers accustomed to working with wood.

“It's a lot different, but our guys are picking up on it,” said Bill Pigott of Glenview Baptist Church in Haltom City, coordinator for the building project.

Running the drill press at the Texas Baptist Men Builders furniture shop in Lubbock is 93-year-old Ed Smith of Faith Chapel Baptist Church in Brownfield.

“One thing about this bunch of guys–you name it, they can build it. And 99 percent of them wouldn't do it for the money. I know of two guys on the crew who each paid to have somebody put a roof put on his house before coming out here. They're something else.”

My Father's House Lubbock marks the 86th Texas Baptist Men volunteer building project for Chester Booth of First Baptist Church in Whitney.

“I have two brothers who are Baptist preachers, and I don't fit in that category. But building is something I can do,” said Booth, who generally serves as lead carpenter with the Texas Baptist Men Builders.

Wayne Pogue from First Baptist Church in Skellytown has worked on more than 30 projects with Texas Baptist Men Builders since joining the volunteers in 1986, usually as lead electrician on the crew.

“A friend called when the builders were at Plains Encampment. He asked if I wanted to volunteer for two or three days. That lasted a couple of weeks, and it was all it took to get me hooked. I've been working with them six or seven months a year ever since then,” he said.

“These are some of the best people I've ever been around. If I ever needed help, these are the folks I'd call on.”

To make the My Father's House Living and Learning Center a reality, 60 retired couples have turned Lubbock's Lowrey Field into a mobile home community, the athletes' field house into a sewing circle and a nearby motorboat showroom into a furniture mill for three months.

The volunteers are living in their mobile homes parked at the Lubbock Independent School District athletic facility, and local churches are serving meals for workers beneath the stadium bleachers.

While their husbands work either on the construction site or at a makeshift furniture factory down the road, wives sew curtains and valances for the windows of the Living and Learning Center, in addition to other ministry projects.

Texas Tech student Andrew Halton, a member of Austin's Hyde Park Baptist Church, works alongside Texas Baptist Men Builders Gaylen Harris from Parkview Baptist Church in Mesquite and Jim Bosworth of First Baptist Church in Navasota.

The Texas Baptist Men furniture builders are crafting beds, chests and tables for the 18 apartments at the Living and Learning Center.

The eldest member of the furniture builder crew is Ed Smith, 93. Smith, a member of Faith Chapel Baptist Church in Brownfield, started working with the Texas Baptist Men Retiree Builders 25 years ago after retiring from the U.S. Air Force.

He moved from the church builders group to the furniture builders crew two years ago.

“I was looking for a better job,” he said.

So instead of climbing a ladder on a construction site, Smith spends hours a day on his feet running a drill press at the furniture mill.

“I've always loved to build,” he said. “I'd go crazy if I didn't have something to do.”

The youngest volunteer on the construction site is Andrew Halton, a business major at Texas Tech University. Halton's father at Hyde Park Baptist Church in Austin read a Baptist Standard article about the volunteer building project, and he called Pigott to ask if his son could help.

The student started work right after completing his last finals of the spring semester. Halton said he is learning not only about the construction trade from the volunteer builders, but also about Christian living.

“I'm growing in my Christian walk,” he said.

During the first three weeks in June, My Father's House Lubbock needs volunteers to put asphalt shingles on the center.

“We're looking for a team of roofers, college-age, who want to give a week or two to My Father's House Lubbock,” Madden said.

Teams will be able to sleep in the facilities of area churches, and they will have access to the showers at the Lowrey Field athletic center.

Once the Texas Baptist Men volunteers complete their work in late July, additional volunteers will be needed in August for interior finishing work and exterior bricklaying, Madden added.

Bible study classes and WMU groups at various churches also are needed to “adopt” an apartment by decorating it. “We are excited for them to do that because it will seal their heart to our ministry, and they will 'own' a piece of the Living and Learning Center,” Madden said.

Prospective volunteers may contact Pigott at (214) 707-4379 or Madden at (806) 799-0990.

Madden said it's a privilege to work with spiritual “giants” like the Texas Baptist Men Builders.

“What a witness they are to all of us. I have never known a group that more perfectly lives out the Matthew 25 life than they do,” she said, referring to Jesus' admonition about caring for the needy. “And our community is seeing it up close and personal.”

For previous stories about My Father's House Lubbock, visit the archives at baptiststandard.com.

Financial contributions may be made directly to My Father's House Lubbock or through the Texas Baptist Missions Foundation. Call the foundation toll-free at (800) 558-8263,

Posted: 6/06/03

Around the State

A concert benefiting the Dallas Christian Women's Job Corps will be held at 7:30 p.m. June 16 at the Meyerson Symphony Center. The concert will include sacred, classical, patriotic and light jazz music. A number of musical artists will perform in addition to the choir and orchestra of Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas. For tickets, call Delores Kube at the CWJC office at (214) 391-5511. All seats are reserved, and tickets are $15, $20 and $25.

Logsdon School of Theology at Hardin-Simmons University recently announced those students selected from Texas Baptist universities as Young Maston Scholar Award winners. The award originated as part of the T.B. Maston Christian Ethics lectures in 2000 and recognizes students who have done outstanding work in the areas of theology and ethics. Pictured are, front row, Vernon Davis, dean of the Logsdon School of Theology; Tori Oquinn, Hardin-Simmons University; Dusty Craig, Dallas Baptist University; Foy Valentine, ethics lecturer; Ethan Parker, East Texas Baptist University; and Grant Rothberg, Houston Baptist University. Top row, Andy Rodgers, HSU; Bill Tillman, HSU professor of ethics and T.B. Maston Chair of Christian Ethics; Derek Hatch, ETBU; Jason Hatch, DBU; Daniel Dotson, Howard Payne University; and Josh Vaughan, HBU.

The Little George Havens Cowboy Camp Meeting will be held for the 37th year June 20-29. The camp meeting is on Highway 84 at Flying H Acres, between Santa Ana and Coleman. Many people bring wagons, tents and camping trailers and stay the week. Services are held at 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. daily. Chuck wagon barbecue is served both Saturdays. The 10th annual Hispanic camp will be held July 2-6. For more information, call Lucy Havens at (214) 942-9874 or (532) 348-3686.

Danny Andrews, former chairman of the Baptist Standard board of trustees, has been named to the Panhandle Press Hall of Fame in Amarillo. Andrews has been editor almost 25 of the 35 years he has worked for the Plainview Daily Herald. He also was editor of The Trail Blazer, the student newspaper at Wayland Baptist University, and received the Communications Award of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. He is a deacon at First Church in Plainview.

Faculty recently receiving promotions at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor are Ann Crawford, associate professor of nursing; Ann Eubanks, assistant professor of business; Kathy Harden, assistant professor of library; Gail Hill, professor of education; Darlene Lary, professor of nursing; Kathy Long, associate professor of nursing; Elizabeth Mallory, assistant professor of library; Colin Mason, assistant professor of fine arts; Mary Pihlak, professor of nursing; David Plunk, assistant professor of exercise and sport science; Audell Shelburne, associate professor of English; and Larry Woodward, associate professor of business.

Six students graduated May 30 fro the Clinical Pastoral Education extended student program of Baptist Health System's Institute of Health Education. Graduates are Maria Gonzales, Katrina Ornelas, Albert Salinas, Connie Jimenez, Aaron Grimaldo and Enrique Birriel. The programs trains people for ministry in hospitals, hospices, nursing homes, mental health centers and congregations.

Anniversaries

Buddy Dudley, fifth, as pastor of Faith Church in Sweeny May 1.

Ken Wieser, 20th, as minister of administration and education at Heights Church in Alvin June 1.

Indian Hills Church in Grand Prairie, 50th, June 22. Charles Wade, executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, will speak in the morning service. Lunch and an afternoon program will follow at the Ruthe Jackson Community Center. Reservations required; call (972) 262-2884. Doug Simon is pastor.

First Church of Forest Hill in Fort Worth, 100th, June 22. Don Goates is the guest speaker, and Duane Blakely will be the guest musician. Don Mitchell is pastor.

Events

Quietwood Church in Dallas commissioned Lawrence and Fonda Koss as Mission Service Corps volunteers May 25. The church will hold homecoming services June 29 that will include a lunch and a 2 p.m. service. T.J. Norvell is pastor.

Mary Ann Iles was named organist emeritus at Calder Church in Beaumont June 1. She has been the church organist for 50 years. James Fuller is pastor.

The Texas Baptist All-State West Choir will perform at Pioneer Drive Church in Abilene June 9 at 7 p.m.

Rolling Oaks Church in San Antonio will feature Christian country music artist Clifton Jansky at its annual summer celebration June 29 at 4 p.m. A dinner will follow the concert.

Retired

Louis Vannatter, as pastor of First Church in Bulverde. He was pastor of the church five years and was in the ministry 40 years.

Death

Truett Sheriff, 91, May 17. Sheriff was director of the Baptist Student Union at Hardin-Simmons University from 1946 to 1956. He was preceded in death by his first wife, Eulene. He is survived by his wife, Margaret; daughters, Monica Landreth and Jane Ramsey; sons, Randall and John; step-children, Steve Ballinger, Judy Baxter, Joanne Pearson and Susie Blossom; brother, Everett; sister, Fay Bernard; 18 grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.

Licensed

Andrew Baker to the ministry at Zephyr Church in Zephyr.

Ordained

Keith Johnson to the ministry at First Church in Valley Mills June 1.

George Bowie, Marc Mangrum and Hugh Wilder as deacons at Woodlawn Church in Austin.

Max Braswell, Chris Ferguson, John Tidwell and Jay Wright as deacons at First Church in Texarkana.

Revivals

Merit Church, Merit; June 8-12; *evangelists, Bill and Vickie Murphy; interim pastor, Bobby Bryan.

New Life Church, Greenville; June 15-19; *evangelists, Bill and Vickie Murphy; pastor, Robert Ingram.

Salem Church, Atlanta; June 18-22; evangelist, Willis Shankles; music, Danny Anderson and Joyce Blackburn; pastor, Gary Kessler.

Shiloh Church, Mexia; June 22-25; *evangelist, George Couch; *music, Dorthea Couch; pastor, George Courtney.

Pearl Church, Gatesville; June 22-25; *evangelist, Dennis Moody; pastor, Steve Taylor.

Liberty Church, Fate; June 22-26; *evangelists, Bill and Vickie Murphy; pastor, Wayne Tumey.

*vocational evangelist

Posted: 6/06/03

Woman leads black ministers' meeting

By Adelle Banks

Religion News Service

HAMPTON, Va. (RNS)–For decades, African-American clergy from across the nation have reserved the first week of June for a time of respite and renewal near the Chesapeake Bay.

But this year, for the first time, the Hampton University Ministers' Conference opened June 2 with a presidential address by a woman. Under the new leadership of Suzan Johnson Cook, an American Baptist minister from the Bronx, N.Y, the 89th annual event marked a juncture in the long tradition of what is known as the largest interdenominational gathering of black ministers in the country.

“It's a brand new day,” she preached, not only referring to herself but encouraging the opening session crowd of 7,500 to let the conference be a fresh starting point for them as well. “If you will just be open to the power of God, God's power can be poured upon your life in an amazing new way.”

Before she preached, the 46-year-old minister nicknamed “Dr. Sujay” took time out especially for her sisters in the faith. After she asked all the female ministers in the arena to stand, she declared: “Don't quit. … Tonight is a living testimony that God rewards faithfulness. Don't give up.”

The conference, which its president and others call the “Mecca for black preachers,” reached a new stage with the election of Cook in 2002 and her first address a year later. Dignitaries dubbed “first ladies of the civil rights movement” sat on the dais of the conference to mark the transition.

“This is a great moment in the history of our country, and it surely is a great moment for women,” declared Dorothy Height, president emeritus of the National Council of Negro Women.

Coretta Scott King congratulated the conference. “You have sent a clarion message that women do indeed have a leadership role to play in religious life,” she said.

Experts on black church life agreed, comparing Cook's election to strides made by women in denominational settings, like the 2000 election of Bishop Vashti McKenzie as the first female bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

But Mary Sawyer, author of a book on black ecumenical relations, said the conference's advancement of a woman leader may be even more significant.

“It's an interdenominational conference and it suggests recognition and acceptance by a broad spectrum of the church”,” said Sawyer, an associate professor of religious studies at Iowa State University in Ames.

Cook and others acknowledge that everyone did not view her election as a cause for celebration.

“There's a lot of guys that didn't even come this year because of a woman president, but I'm of the opinion if God has called you, who am I to judge you?” said Samuel Blow, pastor of a Baltimore church affiliated with the National Baptist Convention USA.

James Forbes, pastor of New York's Riverside Church and Cook's seminary professor, noted that her leadership experience–offering a weekly ministry on Wall Street, working on domestic policy issues with the Clinton administration–caused her to be “fully credentialed” for the post. Other clergy said just like officers that preceded her, Cook worked her way through the ranks of the organization, serving at one point as necrologist, responsible for noting the deaths of ministers since the previous conference.

Posted: 6/06/03

Brentwood wraps its arms around AIDS patients

Editor's note: This is the second in a year-long series highlighting the 11 characteristics of a healthy church identified by the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

HOUSTON–While many Christians virtually shun AIDS patients, Brentwood Baptist Church in Houston embraces them.

We're All In This Together, or WAITT for short, will mark its 10th anniversary this fall as the church's far-reaching ministry to people with AIDS.

The project was one of the first church-based AIDS ministries in the nation and now is considered a model program.

Brentwood's pioneering work in AIDS ministry illustrates one of the 11 characteristics of church health adopted by the Baptist General Convention of Texas, kingdom-based missions.

WAITT is a federally funded AIDS care program run by the church's non-profit outreach organization, the Brentwood Community Foundation. As a federally funded program, WAITT cannot be overtly evangelistic, but many volunteers are church members who seek to help in a Christ-like manner, explained the project's director, Willie Sylvester.

The effort began with church members visiting AIDS patients in the hospital and then grew as the congregation discovered more ways to help, Sylvester said. “We can really thank those early volunteers for getting out and doing the hands-on ministry for those who needed more than a phone call.”

Volunteers and staff now provide food for more than 500 people. Many clients receive counseling and financial assistance with rent, mortgages and utilities.

The church also encourages better community understanding of the disease through forums for youth and adults.

Earvin “Magic” Johnson, the former Los Angeles Lakers star who was diagnosed with HIV in 1991, recently spoke to several crowds at the church.

The crown jewel of the Brentwood program, however, is Brentwood Cottages, three residential units built in 1997 to provide temporary housing for up to 18 HIV-positive and AIDS-infected male residents for as long as a year.

Applicants are screened for drug and alcohol abuse. Men with criminal histories go through counseling to determine if they are a threat to the surrounding community.

Many residents' lives have been “devastated” by the disease as they lose jobs, friends and families, Sylvester said. On top of these stresses, the men must cope with the notion of having a life-ending disease.

William Watts, who moved into the complex from Alabama Jan. 6, described being unable to talk with anyone about having the disease before he came to Brentwood.

At home in Alabama, “you got to hide it,” said Watts, a Baptist. “You want to be honest, but they don't understand.

“I can't tell you or my mom how I feel,” he said, tears welling up in his yellowed eyes.

However, Watts has started to bond with the other cottage residents and has drawn strength from the camaraderie.

“You have people who are dealing with the same problems you have,” he said. “You have someone to talk to who understands.”

The program aims to rebuild residents emotionally and financially. A caseworker guides each man through counseling and finding a job. Support staff help residents put together resumes and attain job skills.

After their yearlong stay, many residents are financially independent and find their own housing, Sylvester said.

“Brentwood staff delivered a comprehensive service that touches each resident,” wrote a client who moved into an apartment after his stay at the cottages. “It was during my stay at Brentwood that I realized how much the community affected by HIV/AIDS needs help from a group like yours. Your pioneer work speaks the existence of humanity.”

Such letters remind Sylvester that the outreach changes lives.

“It's a great thing to see that,” he said. “It's great to hear after they've been here for awhile how much they appreciate it.”

Access to a strong Christian influence also opens doors for ministry. Several residents of Brentwood Cottages have joined Brentwood Baptist Church, and others have been spiritually revitalized.

Although receiving an HIV-positive diagnosis altered Watts' outlook on life, he now is “more at peace,” he said, because he has “put it in the hands of the Lord.” He concentrates on the “bigger picture” of life and doesn't get upset as much.

That attitude change has translated into his spiritual life, he believes.

“I pray more. I thank him a lot more. I wake up and thank him,” Watts said. “I notice the trees, the birds. I appreciate life a little more.”

That's proof of the program's effectiveness, he said, explaining a goal of helping HIV/AIDS clients realize they have futures.

“HIV/AIDS doesn't mean they're dying,” he said. “They're living with it. They have to make lifestyle changes.”

Posted: 6/06/03

Baptist Briefs

Tennessee convention ousts church. Glendale Baptist Church in Nashville, Tenn., which last year hired a lesbian as associate pastor, was removed from membership in the Tennessee Baptist Convention May 30. In a special meeting of the convention's Executive Board, members voted unanimously to “dissolve” the convention's relationship with the church. The action came with little public rancor or debate. Glendale Baptist reportedly agreed to the wording of the recommendation that noted “different visions of faith and practice.”

Taiwan seeks partners. The Taiwan Baptist Convention has asked U.S. Baptists to participate in an evangelism blitz July 17-27, 2004. U.S. partners will group in teams of five members, including a preacher and musician, who will pair with each of the 50 churches affiliated with the Taiwan convention. Cost for the trip is $2,895. For more information, contact Dub Jackson at (915) 698-8480; whdubjackson@compuserve.com or asiamissions2 @juno.com.

Posted: 6/06/03

'Bruce' sets God's number ringing

WASHINGTON (RNS)–More than 30 homes and businesses across the country have been taking calls for God after a new film used a real-life phone number for the Almighty.

In the movie “Bruce Almighty,” Jim Carrey plays TV news reporter Bruce Nolan, who temporarily receives God's powers. When the character of God tries to reach Nolan, God's phone number is displayed repeatedly on Nolan's pager.

But instead of the bogus 555 prefix usually used in movies and television shows, the seven-digit number that appears in “Bruce Almighty” is a working number in many areas of the country–and droves of pranksters and seeking souls have been dialing it up.

According to the Associated Press, a woman in Pinellas Park, Fla., is threatening to sue the movie studio over the 20 calls per hour she has been getting on her cell phone.

Calls for God also are reaching a Denver radio network–which is planning a contest based on the incident–and residences in Arkansas, Florida and South Carolina, among other states.

The Augustin family of Parrish, Fla., has received hundreds of calls and is amused by the mix-up. Their answering machine tells callers they have reached “God's messenger” and they should “call Jim Carrey” instead.

In a few area codes, the listings actually belong to places of worship.

“I'm not too thrilled with it at all,” said Bruce MacInnes, pastor of Turner's Chapel Church in Sanford, N.C., who thinks the movie “mocks God and makes a mockery of religion.”

Still, MacInnes said, “the Lord God is one that could use something that's meant for evil and turn it for good. So this may very well be the reason that that number showed up.”

For the studio's part, Universal Pictures said in a statement the phone number was selected for God because it does not exist in the Buffalo, N.Y., area where the movie is set.