• BGCT president, executive director will answer questions at workshops_110104

  Posted: 10/29/04

  BGCT president, executive director
  will answer questions at workshops

  By Ferrell Foster

  Texas Baptist Communications

  SAN ANTONIO–The president and executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas will discuss elements of a proposed strategic plan in workshops at the beginning of the BGCT annual session Nov. 8 in San Antonio.

  10/29/2004 - By John Rutledge

• BGCT bookstore proceeds benefit missions_110104

  Posted: 10/29/04

  BGCT bookstore proceeds benefit missions

  SAN ANTONIO–Everyone who buys a book at this year's Baptist General Convention of Texas meeting will be making a contribution to missions.

  For the first time, the BGCT will operate its own bookstore during the annual meeting.

  All funds raised above costs will be “reinvested in missions and ministry efforts,” said Becky Bridges, director of the BGCT Communications Center.

  10/29/2004 - By John Rutledge

• Baptist Briefs_110104

  Posted: 10/29/04

  Baptist Briefs

  New York Baptists choose executive director. The executive board of the Baptist Convention of New York elected long-time pastor Terry Robertson as the fifth executive director of the 35-year-old convention. He will succeed J.B. Graham on Graham's retirement Nov. 5. The convention includes 394 churches in New York, northern New Jersey and southwestern Connecticut, representing 25,000 church members. The 50-year-old Robertson, pastor of Madison (N.J.) Baptist Church, has been a pastor, church planter and associational missionary in New York. He has served as the New York representative on the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee since 1995 and was on the Southern Baptist Convention Committee on Nominations in 2002. He served on the executive board of the Baptist Convention of New York from 1995 to 1998. A native of Alabama, Robertson is a graduate of Samford University in Birmingham, Ala., and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Robertson and his wife, Elizabeth, have three sons.

  Baldridge to leave shared CBF post. Gary Baldridge, who with his wife, Barbara, has led the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's global missions effort for five years, will leave CBF at the end of the year to return to a career in writing. CBF Coordinator Daniel Vestal told the group's Coordinating Council Barbara Baldridge will become interim coordinator Jan. 1, assuming the duties she now shares with her husband. He expressed hope she would be elected sole missions coordinator. Gary Baldridge, 53, a newspaper reporter before becoming a missionary more than 25 years ago, plans to do freelance magazine journalism and will try to publish a novel and screenplay he has written. The Baldridges served as Southern Baptist missionaries 17 years in Zambia and several other countries, resigning in 1994 to go to work for the Fellowship.

  Couple's gift establishes lecture. Walter and Kay Shurden of Macon, Ga., gave $100,000 to the Baptist Joint Committee to establish an annual lectureship on religious liberty and church-state separation. Designed to enhance the ministry and programs of the Baptist Joint Committee, the Shurden Lectures will be held at Mercer University every three years and at another seminary, college or university the other years. The first lecture is planned for either 2006 or 2007 at Mercer.

  10/29/2004 - By John Rutledge

• 

  Buckner provides shoes and socks for needy Iraqi children_110104

  Posted: 10/29/04

  Buckner provides shoes and socks for needy Iraqi children

  By Russ Dilday

  Buckner News Service

  DALLAS–Buckner Orphan Care International recently presented the mayor-governor of Kirkuk, Iraq, with 7,000 pairs of new children's shoes and 10,000 pairs of socks.

  10/29/2004 - By John Rutledge

• 

  Buckner brings hope to boys in ‘cages of gold’_110104

  Posted: 10/29/04

  A psychologist in Guatemala City describes the children's homes in her area as "cages of gold," where basic needs are met, but children have neither freedom nor family. (Felicia Fuller Photos)

  Buckner brings hope to boys in 'cages of gold'

  By Felicia Fuller

  Buckner News Service

  GUATEMALA CITY, Guate-mala–Their stories are heartbreaking. A boy suffers severe hip displacement from repeated sexual abuse by an older sibling. Brothers coerced by their mother to beg for money in bars are abducted by two criminals, assaulted and dumped in a cemetery. Children are forced to drop out of grammar school to help support their family.

  10/29/2004 - By John Rutledge

• Clarendon crusade makes eternal impact on community, residents testify_110104

  Posted: 10/29/04

  Clarendon crusade makes eternal
  impact on community, residents testify

  CLARENDON–Donley County may claim a population of only 3,200 people, but more than 600 recently made spiritual decisions during a five-night crusade.

  The Go Tell GreenBelt Crusade saw 349 people make first-time professions of faith in Jesus Christ at the Clarendon football stadium.

  Crusade Chairman Eddie Helms, a deacon at First Baptist Church in Clarendon, worked on crusade planning and preparation for more than a year.

  10/29/2004 - By John Rutledge

• 

  Former Euless pastor declines seminary chaplain’s position_110104

  Posted: 10/29/04

  Former Euless pastor declines seminary chaplain's position

  FORT WORTH (ABP)–Claude Thomas, who recently resigned as pastor of First Baptist Church of Euless, to become chaplain and special assistant to the president at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, has abruptly declined the new position.

  Within days of Thomas' accepting the Southwestern job, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported the 8,500-member Tarrant County church was investigating the pastor's spending history.

  The review found no missing money and concluded many of the church's financial practices are sound, but it raised questions about Thomas' spending during a 2002 overseas trip and about a lax credit card policy, the newspaper reported.

  Claude Thomas

  10/29/2004 - By John Rutledge

• 

  After a 43-year run, Baylor coach still not winded_110104

  Posted: 10/29/04

  Clyde Hart is in his 43rd year as track coach at Baylor University.

  After a 43-year run, Baylor coach still not winded

  By Toby Druin

  Editor Emeritus

  WACO–Maybe it was coincidence, but more likely divine intervention. That's how Clyde Hart describes a trip from Hot Springs, Ark., to Glorieta, N.M., in 1952 that led through Waco and to his becoming a student at Baylor University instead of Louisiana State University.

  10/29/2004 - By John Rutledge

• 

  Executive Board elects committees_110104

  Posted: 10/29/04

  Executive Board elects committees

  At its regularly scheduled fall meeting, the Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board approved committee members recommended by the board's nominating committee.

  Administrative Committee

  Term to expire in 2007: Dan Malone, First Baptist Church, El Paso; Nolan Duck, First Baptist Church, Lufkin; J.C. Parmer, First Baptist Church, Vernon; Cherry Peach, Avenue Baptist Church, Hereford; Rogelio Rodriguez, Segunda Iglesia Bautista, Rosenberg

  10/29/2004 - By John Rutledge

• 

  Actions show Americans don’t really believe in democracy, commission report asserts_110104

  Posted: 10/29/04

  Actions show Americans don't really believe
  in democracy, commission report asserts

  By Ferrell Foster

  Texas Baptist Communications

  SAN ANTONIO–Most Americans no longer believe deeply in democracy–at least, not if their actions reflect their beliefs, a new report on Christian citizenship concludes.

  10/29/2004 - By John Rutledge

• Denton church adjusts to growing community, growing number of challenges_110104

  Posted: 10/29/04

  Denton church adjusts to growing
  community, growing number of challenges

  By Karen Willoughby

  Baptist Press

  DENTON (BP)–First Baptist Church in Denton has a brand-new purpose statement: “To love and serve the Lord so we can reach and influence our community and the world for Christ.”

  10/29/2004 - By John Rutledge

• 

  DOWN HOME: They’re retiring; not from ministry_110104

  Posted: 10/29/04

  DOWN HOME:
  They're retiring; not from ministry

  The sun set on an era of church history Sunday, Oct. 31.

  The Roman Catholic Church didn't select a new pope. Billy Graham didn't pass his mantle to “the next Billy Graham.” All the Muslims didn't convert to Christianity. And, unfortunately, nobody settled the hymns vs. praise choruses “worship wars.”

  No, 10/31/04 won't get written up in church history textbooks. But it's a significant day nontheless: My father, Marvin Knox, retired from the pastorate.

  10/29/2004 - By John Rutledge