Posted: 9/03/04
Baptist Distinctives Committee
presents annual Baptist Heritage awards
By Ken Camp
Managing Editor
DALLAS–A veteran missions leader, a former theological educator, a longtime Dallas business leader and a retired Baptist newspaper editor received top honors at the recent Texas Baptist Heritage awards banquet.
James Semple of Dallas, chairman of the Baptist General Convention of Texas Baptist Distinctives Committee, presented the awards on behalf of his committee and its Texas Baptist Heritage Center.
Ophelia Humphrey, a former president of Woman's Missionary Union of Texas, received the Mary Hill Davis Missions Award.
Humphrey, who was a church, associational, state and national missions leader during more than 60 years at First Baptist Church in Amarillo, relocated to Seattle, Wash., earlier this year.
She served on the BGCT Executive Board, on the board of consultants for the BGCT Christian Life Commission and as a trustee of Wayland Baptist University, Baptist Child & Family Services and the Huntsville Hospitality House.
She also served on numerous denominational committees, including the BGCT Missions Review and Initiatives Committee and the Theological Education Committee.
Joshua Grijalva, former president of the institution now known as the Baptist University of the Americas, received the J.B. Gambrell Denominational Service Award.
Before he served as the school's president, he was a teacher, dean and field director of ethnic leadership development. He also served at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary as a professor and national consultant for ethnic leadership development.
Grijalva, pastor of Iglesia Bautista Nueva Esperanza in San Antonio, is a past president of the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas and was the first moderator of the San Antonio Mexican Baptist Association. He was a trustee of the Southern Baptist Sunday School Board and Annuity Board, and he was a trustee of Howard Payne University.
Fred Roach received the Sam Houston Distinguished Service Award, presented each year to a Texas Baptist lay leader in civic and business life.
Roach, a member of The Heights Baptist Church in Richardson, was president and chief executive officer of Centennial Homes. After his retirement from business, he served nine years as president of the Leadership Center of Baylor Health Care System.
He is a former president of Texas Baptist Men, and he served on the building committee for the Baptist Building in Dallas.
He has served as a trustee and regent at Baylor University, as chairman of the board of trustees of Baylor Health Care System, and as chairman of the Texas Baptist Missions Foundation.
He and his wife, Gloria, were co-chairs of a fund-raising effort that garnered more than $20 million for the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas Missions and the Mission Texas initiative that helped start 2,000 churches from 1985 to 1990.
Presnall Wood, editor emeritus of the Baptist Standard, received the George W. Truett Religious Freedom Award for promoting Baptist distinctives, including advocacy for the separation of church and state.
Wood served the Baptist Standard from 1977 to 1995, the longest tenure any of editor in the newspaper's history.
After he retired as editor, he worked five years as director of denominational relations for Buckner Baptist Benevolences.
He was a former chairman of the BGCT Baptist Distinctives Committee and served on the BGCT Executive Board, the board of trustees of Hendrick Memorial Hospital and the board of directors of the Southern Baptist Sunday School Board.
He was pastor of churches in Houston, Midland, Goldthwaite and rural Coryell County.
Bill Pinson, BGCT executive director emeritus and director of the Baptist Heritage Center, presented a special recognition to Buckner Baptist Benevolences President Ken Hall marking Buckner's 125th anniversary.
Pinson posthumously recognized Dallas banker Noble Hurley and his widow, Jane, for their significant financial contributions to the Baptist Distinctives Committee.
Their gifts include funding a series of educational resources that will appear as paid advertisements in the Baptist Standard next year.
Pinson also announced the committee was publishing a Baptist doctrinal library series in conjunction with other BGCT entities.
Paul Powell's book, “Back to Bedrock,” is the first volume in the series.
The committee also has developed a children's book on distinctive Baptist beliefs.
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