• Pledge to ‘one nation under God’ spurs debate_20904

  Posted: 2/06/04

  Pledge to 'one nation under God' spurs debate

  By Adelle Banks

  Religion News Service

  WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is at the head of a long line of individuals and organizations urging the U.S. Supreme Court to declare the Pledge of Allegiance constitutional.

  02/06/2004 - By John Rutledge

• Analysts debate meaning, existence of voters’ ‘religion gap’_20904

  Posted: 2/06/04

  Analysts debate meaning, existence of voters' 'religion gap'

  By William Bole

  Religion News Service

  (RNS)–One sign of how religion is factoring in presidential politics is that on the eve of the Jan. 19 Iowa caucuses, Democratic candidate Howard Dean was not in Iowa.

  02/06/2004 - By John Rutledge

• 

  Let Christians become society’s key storytellers, Seay says_20904

  Posted: 2/06/04

  Let Christians become
  society's key storytellers, Seay says

  By Ferrell Foster

  Texas Baptist Communications

  RICHARDSON–Christians reflect the Creator, and it's time for them to claim their place as the primary storytellers in today's culture, a postmodern pastor told the Texas Evangelism and Missions Conference.

  02/06/2004 - By John Rutledge

• Spiritual issues of interest to college students more than profs, study says_20904

  Posted: 2/06/04

  Spiritual issues of interest to college
  students more than profs, study says

  LOS ANGELES (ABP)–Most American college students are more interested in discussing spiritual matters than are their professors, preliminary results from a massive nationwide study suggest.

  Late last year, researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles' Higher Education Research Institute released results from the third year of a four-year study. The study has tracked the spiritual activities and attitudes of 3,680 undergraduate students at 46 colleges and universities across the United States since they enrolled in the schools as freshmen in 2000.

  The preliminary results show that while more than two-thirds of the students “demonstrate a substantial level of religious engagement and commitment,” only 8 percent of the students reported their professors encouraged classroom discussion of spiritual matters.

  02/06/2004 - By John Rutledge

• 

  Houston’s Super Bowl visitors hear the gospel_20904

  Posted: 2/06/04

  Houston's Super Bowl visitors hear the gospel

  By John Hall

  Texas Baptist Communications

  HOUSTON–In the shadow of the grand Super Bowl extravaganza, Texas Inner City Evangelism team members found small actions can have the greatest impact.

  02/06/2004 - By John Rutledge

• 

  Houston-area Baptists score big with Super Bowl outreach_20904

  Posted: 2/06/04

  A child looks on a "M.T. Head" and "Sweet P." make a balloon dog for him during a sports carnival at Cloverleaf Baptist Church, near Houston. The sports carnival was one of many evangelistic events planned in conjunction with the Super Bowl. (John Hall Photos)

  Houston-area Baptists score
  big with Super Bowl outreach

  By John Hall

  Texas Baptist Communications

  HOUSTON ­The Super Bowl has spring-boarded many athletes to international fame. Texas Baptists used the event to point people to something more important.

  02/06/2004 - By John Rutledge

• Texas Baptist Men show Christian love to Iranian refugees in tent city_20904

  Posted: 2/06/04

  Texas Baptist Men show Christian
  love to Iranian refugees in tent city

  By Ken Camp

  Managing Editor

  From hurricanes in Latin America to famines in Africa and Asia, Texas Baptist Men volunteers have been some of the first responders among faith-based disaster relief providers over the last three decades.

  02/06/2004 - By John Rutledge

• 

  Smith nominated as TBM director after serving as long-term interim_20904

  Posted: 2/06/04

  Smith nominated as TBM director
  after serving as long-term interim

  By John Hall

  Texas Baptist Communications

  Texas Baptist Men's personnel search committee will nominate interim director Leo Smith as the organization's executive director when the TBM board of directors meets Feb. 27 at Latham Springs Baptist Encampment.

  02/06/2004 - By John Rutledge

• 

  Texas Tidbits_20904

  Posted: 2/06/04

  Texas Tidbits

  Brueggemann to lecture at Truett. Old Testament scholar and noted author Walter Brueggemann will present the Parchman Lecture series March 9-11 at Truett Theological Seminary in Waco. His lectures will be presented at 3 p.m. daily in the seminary chapel and are open to the public. For more information, contact Roger Olson at (254) 710-6654.

  Joel Gregory

  Gregory and Seay share pulpit at Wayland. Joel Gregory, former pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, and Chris Seay, pastor of Ecclesia Community in Houston, will headline the 83rd annual Panhandle Pastors' and Laymen's Conference, Feb. 23-24 at Wayland Baptist University. Gregory will lead the conference Bible study, focusing on restoration and reconciliation. Seay will preach on bridging the generations in the church. A special session for Hispanic pastors and laymen will be held at 6 p.m. on Feb. 23 in Brown Chapel on the Wayland campus. Al Guajardo, president of the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas, will speak. For more information on the conference, call (806) 291-1165.

  UMHB schedules retirement seminar. The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor and the Annuity Board of the Southern Baptist Convention will co-sponsor an investment and retirement seminar for ministers Feb. 26 in the Mabee Student Center on the UMHB campus. For more information, contact the church relations office at UMHB at (254) 295-4620 or email wmuske@umhb.edu.

  02/06/2004 - By John Rutledge

• 

  Together: Repentance offers sin’s only remedy_20904

  Posted: 2/06/04

  TOGETHER:
  Repentance offers sin's only remedy

  Worshipping the past few weeks in an African-American church in Missouri City, a Hispanic church in north Houston and an Anglo church in Seagoville, I have experienced both the joy and the seriousness of worship. God is good all the time. I cherish what I see him doing in the lives of Texas Baptists.

  When we worship, we offer ourselves heart and soul to God. Everything in us is touched when we enter fully into his presence.

  One often-neglected part of worship is the call to confess our sin before God that we might be forgiven and renewed.

  CHARLES WADE Executive Director BGCT Executive Board

  02/06/2004 - By John Rutledge

• West Texas children’s choir warms up to idea of making a difference_20904

  Posted: 2/06/04

  West Texas children's choir warms
  up to idea of making a difference

  By John Hall

  Texas Baptist Communications

  VALERA–The weather may be cold, but some West Texans are staying warm because of a children's choir that set out to make a difference in its community.

  02/06/2004 - By John Rutledge

• 

  State Department names chief violators of religious liberty worldwide_20904

  Posted: 2/06/04

  State Department names chief
  violators of religious liberty worldwide

  By Rob Marus

  ABP Washington Bureau

  WASHINGTON (ABP)–The State Department's annual report on the status of religious freedom across the globe includes some familiar faces among its chief offenders.

  02/06/2004 - By John Rutledge