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.

“Our desire is that every messenger feel confident that an effort has been made to answer questions and address issues,” President Ken Hall said. “Baptists make the best decisions when they are informed and prepared.”

The same workshop will be offered twice in the morning prior to an afternoon session in which messengers will consider adopting new strategic plan statements and a proposed amended constitution that would alter the governance structure of the BGCT.

Hall and Executive Director Charles Wade will lead the workshops titled “Shaping the Future of BGCT: Mission, Vision and Governance.” The one-hour sessions will begin at 9 and 10:30 a.m. in the Gallery at street level at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center. The room will seat 800 people for each session.

The workshops come prior to the opening general session of the convention at 12:45 p.m. Nov. 8. That afternoon, messengers will vote on strategic plan proposals.

The workshops will provide a more in-depth understanding of proposed BGCT changes and answers to messengers' questions, Wade said.

“I am looking forward to being there and being available for a thorough discussion in preparation for a vote later in the day,” he said.

The workshops led by Hall and Wade are among 60 English and six Spanish small-group sessions offered during the convention.

There will be multiple workshops to choose from during four periods–9-10 a.m. Monday; 10:30-11:30 a.m. Monday; 4-5 p.m. Monday; and 9-10 a.m. Tuesday.

For more information on the annual session, visit www.bgct.org/convention2004.

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.

In recent years, LifeWay Christian Resources and Smyth & Helwys operated separate bookstores.

This year's bookstore will carry a broad selection of books and other products, Bridges said. More than 70 publishers will be represented, including BaptistWay Press, Zondervan, Thomas Nelson, LifeWay, Eerdmans, New Hope, Smyth & Helwys, Group, Baylor Press and Integrity.

The bookstore will feature more than 600 products, Bridges noted.

Some institutional products will be featured, such as a Baylor University choir Christmas special aired last year on PBS–available in DVD and CD–and candles from Breckenridge Village of Tyler.

“The best thing about the BGCT bookstore this year is the opportunity to raise funds for missions,” Bridges said.

“It's a win-win situation where we can help provide great resources and support the important work of the churches and institutions of the BGCT.”

The bookstore will be in Exhibit Hall B of the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center.

It will be open at the same times as all other exhibits–3 to 6 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 7; 8 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. and 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 8; and 8 to 10:15 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 9. For more convention information, visit www.bgct.org/2004convention.

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.

Plains pastor plans retirement. After 22 years as pastor of a small Baptist congregation that includes former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, Dan Ariail plans to retire next year. Ariail, 66, will retire Oct. 1, 2005, or earlier in the year if Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Ga., calls a new pastor. The 135-member church is known for attracting thousands of visitors each year to hear Carter teach weekly Sunday school lessons. Ariail preaches weekly to more visitors than members, with many guests experiencing a Baptist church for the first time. He and his wife, Nell, plan to continue living in Plains and being a part of the Maranatha congregation.

Baptist ethics pioneer dies. Henlee Barnette, a former professor and author who pioneered the study of Christian ethics at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, died Oct. 20 at age 93. Barnette, who taught at Southern from 1951 to 1977, and T.B. Maston, who taught at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, were considered co-pioneers as Southern Baptist ethicists, according to Bill Leonard, dean of Wake Forest University's divinity school. "Both addressed the racial issue very early and then helped Baptists think through the moral crusades of the last half of the 20th century," said Leonard, a friend and former colleague of Barnette's. Barnette once invited Martin Luther King Jr. to preach a chapel service at Southern when King was in Louisville to take part in a fair-housing campaign. King was not popular among many Southern Baptists or other white Southerners at the time, and as a result, more than 200 Alabama Baptist churches stopped sending money to Southern.

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.

The presentation came during Abdulrahman Mustafa Fatah's North Texas tour with Partners for Peace, an international goodwill agreement with Dallas.

The shoes were collected through Buckner's Shoes for Orphan Souls humanitarian aid drive, which has donated more than 1 million pairs of new shoes to orphans around the world.

“There are poor people in Iraq right now,” said Mustafa, a lawyer who was elected mayor-governor of Kirkuk in 2003.

He thanked Buckner for the gift, emphasizing the urgent needs in northern Iraq.

“In Kirkuk, under the Saddam regime, there was an effort to remove people from the area,” Mustafa said through a translator.

“These people were kicked out of their homes. They have been given back their homes, unfortunately many of these homes were destroyed … and they are living in tents in (a place like) soccer fields. They are in great need in every sector imaginable.”

Jeff Jones, Buckner Orphan Care International's director of operations, said the gift of the shoes “opens the door for us to minister to a lot of the children and orphans in Iraq. The sister city venue is a wonderful way for us to do that.”

The presentation summed Buckner's objective with the Shoes for Orphan Souls project–“for us to be a help to orphans and children allows us to see our ministry vision validated,” he said. “We have collected more than 140,000 pairs of shoes this year already, and we have several containers waiting for approval or funding.”

Jones noted that Buckner is waiting for shipping instructions and a shipping date from the U.S. State Department, adding, “They will get there as soon as possible.”

The Partners for Peace plan, announced by First Lady Laura Bush last summer, pairs United States cities with Iraqi provinces to promote communication, cooperation and understanding between nations.

Dallas is among six American participants in the federally funded program administered by Sister Cities International

“This is a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions, and we want to do our part to render aid,” said Tiffany Taylor, marketing director for Buckner Orphan Care International and Shoes for Orphan Souls.

“Thousands of Iraqi children live like refugees in camps where food, water, clothing and proper sanitation are scarce. Buckner is humbled to be able to touch these children in a tangible way.”

Governor Mustafa also met with leaders of Buckner Children and Family Services to discuss children's issues in Iraq.

Posted: 10/29/04

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.

These troubling accounts only tap the surface of the abuse and abandonment endured by youngsters who found refuge at a boys' home in Guatemala City.

“Some suffer serious emotional problems,” says psychologist Elizabeth Morales, who counsels the children regularly. “Sixty percent have been sexually violated. The scars are deep, but they can overcome.”

The home currently houses 39 boys from 13 to 18 years old, although occasionally age restrictions are bypassed if no other viable alternatives are available for a child in need of shelter. Referrals usually come from the courts, but some children admit themselves voluntarily because they have nowhere else to go.

“These institutions are like cages of gold,” Morales explains. “They have the necessary things to live and survive, but they don't have freedom and the love of a family.”

Psychologist Elizabeth Morales offers comfort and counsel to a boy at a child care home in Guatemala City.

That's where Buckner Baptist Benevolences steps in. Organization officials first visited the government-run home in January to meet director Brenda Seikavezza and discuss how the ministry could augment care.

Mission teams have ministered to the boys and delivered humanitarian aid in the form of food, shoes, clothing and furnishings. Donations have provided for new plumbing and bathroom facilities, and plans are under way to construct designated space for workshops and vocational training so the boys can find lucrative employment upon leaving.

“Buckner represents hope to us–a better quality of life for the boys,” says Seikavezza, who's been on the orphanage staff six years.

"They've given us material that the therapists have been able to use for special projects with the kids. The activities have been very creative, and the kids are happy with them."

Morales and an occupational therapist work closely with the children to help them overcome personal issues related to abuse and abandonment.

Group sessions are held on a rotating schedule according to room assignment. Individual sessions also are available as needed.

“Buckner has been a big support to us,” Morales says. “The children feel more affectionate to us now because of the Buck-ner family and the teams they bring.”

Buckner also has contributed educational materials for the children. Most of the boys attend classes on site, while others have scholarships to private high schools. Mentally challenged residents take special education courses at the home. An after-school program offers tutoring assistance in reading, writing and arithmetic.

Despite the programs and people, Seikavezza says a critical void remains–positive male mentorship.

“The only man on staff is the special education instructor,” she said. “We would like to have at least three men here, so they could be models for the boys.”

Jesus, 15, says although he lacks a male model, he's resolved to rise above his circumstances. He and his brother, Jorge, were panhandling in a bar when two con-men lured them with promises of food and shelter.

“We were tired of living on the streets with our family, so we went with them,” he says.

After assaulting the brothers in a hotel room then dumping them in a cemetery, the men returned wielding machetes and forced the boys to accompany them on a heist.

They later were arrested, and the boys were sent to an orphanage in Xela, where they lived five years before coming to Eliza Martinez.

“We like it here,” Jesus says. “We go to school, and we have people who care about us.”

Brothers Jesse and Pablo share that sentiment. Forced to work during grammar school, they received little formal education until they came to the orphanage four years ago.

“I want to get my master's degree in computers, and the people here are encouraging me,” says Jesse, 16.

“I feel more love here than with my own family. I've had two auditions with the judge where I could have gone with them, but I chose to stay here.”

Seikavezza says that while she and her staff do all they can with the resources provided by the government and Buckner, what the children need most is a family.

“Because they're mostly older kids, there haven't been many offers for them,” she says. “They're good kids; they just need direction.”

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.

Helms, who enlisted more than 200 committee workers, said: “The crusade was the most thrilling thing we've ever experienced in Donley County. Our churches came together across denominational lines in a spirit of unity and cooperation to love and reach people, and we will continue what the crusade started.”

His pastor, Truman Ledbetter, has been praying for revival in the area almost 18 years.

“God answered our prayers,” Ledbetter said. “Nothing like this has ever happened in our community.

"Words are so inadequate to describe the mighty outpouring of God's Spirit on so many. We are rejoicing in what God has done and in this great harvest that has eternal consequences. "Our community will not just be changed for weeks or months, but for years to come."

Darrell Burton, pastor of Martin Baptist Church in Clarendon, said he and his family always will remember the crusade.

“I was blown away seeing the hearts of so very many people touched and changed by the power of God,” he said.

“I can't begin to tell what it did for me personally, as a pastor, as a believer, and as a member of this community.

“I will especially cherish one moment forever, in fact, for all eternity. It was the moment my 9-year-old daughter raised her hand to be saved.”

Evangelist Rick Gage and the crusade team visited local schools, speaking to issues such as drugs, alcohol abuse and teen suicide.

Jay Lowder, staff evangelist with the crusade team, spoke to 40 basketball players from Clarendon College at the invitation of their coach. Thirty-one of the 40 athletes indicated a desire to give their lives to Jesus Christ at the end of his talk.

Excited people throughout the community are quick to talk about what God did in the lives of friends and loved ones.

"I have a good friend for whom I had been praying for many, many years," said James Thomas of First Baptist Church. "Wednesday night of the crusade, he surrendered his life to the Lord. I couldn't believe it.

“He hugged me and cried, then looked me straight in the eye and said: 'God has changed my life. For so long, I've done wrong, but now I have a chance to do things right.' It is just a miracle.”

One 72-year-old man reportedly asked a counselor, “Do you really want to deal with this hard-hearted old buzzard?”

He proceeded to make a profession of faith in Jesus Christ.

In some cases, entire families came to faith in Christ as a result of the revival.

Gage said he was thrilled to be able to preach in even small communities like Clarendon.

“God has burdened my heart to take the gospel to as many towns as possible in my lifetime,” he said.

“As a native Texan, however, Texas is especially dear to me. I consider it an honor to preach in my home state, and I give God the glory for every life that has been touched and transformed by his power.”

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.

Thomas, 61, has not commented on the church's audit, and it is unknown if his resignation from the church or the seminary is related to the audit. Harold Samuels, a church trustee and former Euless mayor, said he did not know whether Thomas resigned at the request of church leaders, but added, “I would not say it was a coincidence.”

Paige Patterson, president of the 3,000-student Southern Baptist seminary in Fort Worth, had named Thomas to the newly created post of seminary chaplain.

“Upon more mature reflection, I am not certain that this move is best for my family or for the seminary at this particular time,” Thomas said in a statement released by the seminary. “I have come to believe that I should not make such a commitment until I am certain about what I should pursue as the next step in my life and ministry.”

Patterson said that, while he was personally disappointed, he fully understands the decision and prays “heaven's richest blessings on Dr. Thomas and his family.” Patterson added, “I am sure that he is making a wise decision for all.”

The $35,000 audit by a local CPA firm examined a $25,000 European trip and month-long sabbatical the church gave to Thomas in 2002 and found Thomas had exceeded that budget by several thousand dollars, according to the newspaper. It also examined the use of credit cards by staff members.

“There were some questionable charges to the credit cards of all the senior staff, some more than others,” Samuels said. “I won't single anybody out.”

Thomas, a two-time graduate of Southwestern and former national alumni president, was pastor of the Euless church 12 years.

He was president of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee and Pastors' Conference.

Posted: 10/29/04

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.

Hart is in his 43rd year as track coach at Baylor. His latest protégé, Jeremy Wariner, won the 400 meter run at the Olympics in Athens in August, and he and his Baylor teammate, Darold Williamson, ran the last two legs on the winning 4×400 meter relay team.

They and former Baylor runner Michael Johnson, also coached by Hart, have won eight gold medals in Olympic competititon.

But had it not been for that Waco trip in 1952, Hart easily could have been coaching at LSU, and those gold medals could have hung around the necks of Tigers instead of Bears.

Hart was a star athlete at Hot Springs (Ark.) High School, playing halfback on the football team and winning the 100-yard dash in track in his senior year in 1952.

That spring, he recalled, his uncle called to tell him he had arranged for a scholarship for him at LSU and for him to come to Baton Rouge to talk to the coach.

Baylor University Track Coach Clyde Hart poses with Olympic medalists Darold Williamson and Jeremy Wariner.

“For the son of a Baptist pastor,” Hart said, “the offer of a full scholarship was great. We had a parsonage furnished and never hurt for anything, but my dad did a lot of weddings and revivals to help us out.”

After an all-night bus ride to LSU, Hart was taken by his uncle to the LSU stadium to meet a Coach Moreau, who apparently didn't know he was coming. He was busy putting on a track meet, and Hart said it was obvious he didn't know anything about a scholarship. Hart's uncle, however, asked if Hart could run in the track meet, and Coach Moreau said it would be OK.

“There weren't as many restrictions then,” recalled Hart. “We could never do that today.”

Nevertheless, wearing borrowed shorts, shirt and track shoes, Hart competed in the freshman junior varsity division and won the 100-yard dash with a time of 9.8, which was faster than the varsity runners posted that day. He left for home with a scholarship in hand. Later that spring, he won the 100-yard dash in the Arkansas high school track meet with a time of 9.3 seconds.

He had not thought about going to Baylor, he said, although he was somewhat familiar with the university. His father had several Baylor preachers in his church for revivals.

“I just thought Baylor was this school in Texas, and I would never get to go there,” he said.

His father, however, was on a committee to select a site for a new Southern Baptist conference center in the West, similar to the one at Ridgecrest, N.C. In early summer 1952, after his high school graduation, Hart, his father and mother drove to New Mexico to see what was being developed as Glorieta Baptist Conference Center near Santa Fe.

“I know that Waco is not on the way from Hot Springs to Glorieta,” Hart recalled, “but on our way to New Mexico, we stopped in Waco. To his dying day, my dad denied it was a setup to get me to come to Baylor and so did Jack Wilson, the track coach at the time. So maybe it was coincidence or divine intervention.

“Coach Wilson and I talked awhile. He said he had not tried to recruit me because he thought I was going to LSU. He gave me his card and told me to see the campus. I walked around on my own, and I liked it. After we got back in the car, my dad never said I had to come to Baylor, but I had a calling after that visit that Baylor was where I wanted to do my running.”

Hart came to Baylor, competed in Southwest Conference track for four years, and graduated in 1956 with a bachelor of business administration degree with a major in personnel management and a minor in marketing. He also met and married his wife, Maxine, a twirler and aspiring majorette from Gladewater, who had been offered a band scholarship to LSU but whose parents had insisted she go to Baylor. Mrs. Hart is emeritus professor of information systems at Baylor.

After graduation, Hart worked for an oil company in West Texas for a year but had decided to quit to become a track coach at a Houston junior high school when his father called one day to tell him the coach at Little Rock Central High School had resigned to go to the University of Tulsa.

“Central was the premier high school in the South, educationally and athletically,” Hart recalled. “I didn't have much hope of getting the job since I had no coaching experience and no teaching certificate, but Maxine and I drove all night to get to Little Rock for an interview.”
After pledging to begin work immediately on a teaching certificate, he was given the job, and over the next six years his teams rewrote a lot of Arkansas track records. They won a state championship in 1958 before the school was closed for a year because of the integration dispute. After it was reopened, his teams won 50 straight track meets.

The year off during the integration crisis helped teach him a valuable lesson, Hart recalled.

“I was an assistant football coach,” he said, “Central was the largest school in the state, and we had contracts with other teams we felt we had to fulfill. So we played a full schedule, even though there was no school being held.

“When we started the season, we had more than 100 kids in uniform, but when it became apparent the school was not going to reopen and some realized they had enough credits to graduate, they began to drop out. On Thanksgiving Day, when we played our last game, we had only 24 or 25 kids in uniform, and some of them were our managers and trainers.”

“They did a great job,” he said. “Some of them had been told they weren't good enough and had accepted roles as third and fourth stringers in junior high. But you'd be surprised at what happens when you tell one of those kids he's starting and it's his job. For a young coach, it showed me you have to go with what you've got.”

He applies the lesson to facilities as well as athletes.

“When I came to Baylor, we didn't even have our own track,” he said. “We ran at old Waco Municipal Stadium. Now, we have excellent facilities. They are not the best in the Big 12; but they are not the worst. They've been good enough to have helped us produce eight Olympic gold medallists.”

“I tell coaches that you don't recruit with facilities,” Hart said. “You sell what you've got and Baylor was and is Baylor. We will never be Texas or Texas A&M. If someone gave us $100 million today to build new facilities, we aren't going to surpass Texas or A&M.

“The good news is they can never be us. They can't reduce the size of their institutions. They can't have the freedom we have at Baylor. Baylor is a private university, the only one in the Big 12.

"Baylor is a Christian institution, and we live by those values. The last place I take an athlete is to the athletic fields. I bring them to the Baylor campus."

Hart said when Michael Johnson came to Baylor to visit, he went home and told his mother he liked what he had seen and liked what Hart had done with sprinters and quarter-milers. Mrs. Johnson told Hart that Michael said there wasn't much to do in Waco at night and on weekends, however.

“She said she told him he could study,” Hart recalled. Johnson got his degree in business.

“If Michael had based his decision on where he would go on where he could have the best parties and the best facilities, he wouldn't have come to Baylor,” said Hart. “But a lot of coaches who sell their recruits on those kinds of things are the ones who are in trouble today.”

Hart said he has never applied for another coaching job but was offered one at the University of Alabama. After an interview with Athletic Director Bear Bryant, he agreed to take the position, Hart said, “but the closer I got to Waco and my family and when I considered the intangibles we have at Baylor, I made a commitment to staying here.”

In recruiting athletes for his track team, Hart said, he first looks for a kid “who wants to be successful, who has focus and a good work ethic.”

He has had athletes who have been faster than Michael Johnson, he said, but who did not have Johnson's focus or his work ethic, and he gives the credit to Johnson's parents.

“They would sit down with him at the first of the year and ask him what his goals were for the year. When he told them his goals, they would tell him it wasn't enough to have goals, that he had to have a plan to reach them. He taught me that. He came in as a goal-oriented person. Track was second for him; academics was first, and even when he got a taste of success at track, he never let his academics suffer.”

Hart credited both Johnson and Jeremy Wariner with having the ability to focus, to not show fear and not to be self-destructive when things go wrong. Wariner, he said, was more focused on breaking Johnson's school record in the 400 meters than he was in winning the Olympics in Athens, both of which he accomplished.

“His first words to me “after winning the gold medal,” Hart said, “was, 'Coach, I broke the school record.'”

Track teaches great lessons for life, Hart said.

“I don't know of any other individual sport where you can be on a mountaintop one moment and then in the valley the next. You learn to keep coming back. You learn self-motivation and discipline. It's like being in combat by yourself.

“There is success one minute and a pulled hamstring the next. Life has its ups and downs, and you have to learn to cope with them. You learn that in track.”

Hart is a committed Christian, but said he would rather show it in his actions rather than words.

“Although I will give a devotional and tell folks that I am a Christian and how I got saved,” he said.

“I am a deacon and member of First Baptist Church of Waco, and I speak everywhere; but I feel that my faith is a personal thing.”

Outside of coaching, he enjoys hunting and fishing and is playing more golf and enjoying it more “since I decided I was never going to be real good.”

As for any retirement plans, he said, “As long as I am happy and healthy and doing the job, I don't have anything I enjoy more.”

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

Baptist Church Loan Corporation

Term to expire in 2007: Walter August, Jr., Bethel's Family Baptist Church, Houston; Joe Cargile, First Baptist Church, Crosbyton; Barbara Jane Kaplan, First Baptist Church, Garland; Wayne McWhorter, First Baptist Church, Marshall

Baptist Distinctives Committee

Term to expire in 2007: Brian Harbour, First Baptist Church, Richardson; L.S. Wilson, East St. Paul Baptist Church, Fort Worth; Orpha Esqueda, Primera Iglesia Bautista, San Antonio

Baptist Student Ministry Committee

Term to Expire in 2007: Jim Spence, Willow Meadows Baptist Church, Houston; Linda Winder, First Baptist Church, College Station; Danny Quintanilla, First Baptist Church, Portland; Jerry Raines, Hampton Road Baptist Church, DeSoto

Term to expire in 2006: Danny Pickens, Mount Carmel Baptist Church, Whitehouse

Business and Audit Committee

Term to expire in 2007: Don Rawls, First Baptist Church, Waxahachie; Marion Bryant, Indiana Avenue Baptist Church, Lubbock; Paul Jefferson, Brentwood Baptist Church, Houston; Tom Strealey, First Baptist Church, Corpus Christi; Marisela Saldana, Primera Iglesia Bautista, Dallas

Christian Life Commission

Term to expire in 2007: Cy Fletcher, First Baptist Church, Baytown; Buddy Helms, Bethel Baptist Church, Big Lake; Charles Kemble, Leesville Baptist Church, Leesville; Hector Tavera, Iglesia Templo Bautista, Lubbock; John Bell, First Baptist Church, Corpus Christi

Term to expire in 2006: Dan Griffith, First Baptist Church, Haskell

Member-at-large: Dan Treviño, Harlandale Baptist Church, San Antonio

Center for Christian Leadership Advisory Committee

Term to expire in 2007: Dorothy Wilkinson, Park Cities Baptist Church, Dallas; Howard Anderson, Singing Hills Baptist Church, Dallas; Trezzie Presley, First Baptist Church, Commerce; Mario Ramos, Heartland Hills Community Church, San Antonio; Bill Hasse, South Park Baptist Church, Alvin

State Missions Commission

Term to expire in 2007: Reed Harris, First Baptist Church, Belton; Robert Miller, North End Baptist Church, Beaumont; Diana Longino, First Baptist Church, Sulphur Springs; Rudy Camacho, Genesis Baptist Church, Fort Worth; Sylvia Jordan, Temple Baptist Church, Amarillo

Member-at-large: Lupe Perez, Iglesia Bautista Nueva Vida, Wolfforth

Texas Baptist Historical Council

Term to expire in 2007: Roy Kornegay, First Baptist Church, Amarillo; Jim Mullin, Lakeshore Drive Baptist Church, Weatherford; Marvin Griffin, Ebenezer Baptist Church, Austin

Theological Education Committee

Term to expire in 2007: Linda Brian, First Baptist Church, Amarillo; J.A. Reynolds, First Baptist Church, Belton; Doyle Young, Dayspring Baptist Church, Waco; John Thielepape, Meadow Lane Baptist Church, Arlington; Bob Cox, Green Acres Baptist Church, Tyler

Texas Baptist Laity Institute

Term to expire in 2007: C.M. Singleton, First Missionary Baptist Church, Fort Worth

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

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.

“Alarming numbers of citizens are unwilling to make even the smallest investment of time to preserve the democratic ideal,” says the 2004 report of the Baptist General Convention of Texas' Christian Life Commission.

Many Americans are not voting and participating in other ways in the democratic process, says the report, which will be presented to messengers to the BGCT annual session in San Antonio.

This is an issue for Christians because believers hold “dual citizenships,” the report says. “Precisely because we are subjects of God's reign, we are called to live as sojourners in the kingdoms of this world.”

The report lists five ways Christians can express their faith and ministry in citizenship.

Vote. “Voting is the most basic act of participation. To not vote is to let others decide. This is a country 'of the people' and ultimately 'for the people' only if the people show up to vote. Most Americans do not,” the report states.

In the 2000 presidential election, 51 percent of eligible voters went to the polls. Forty years earlier, 65 percent voted. In the nonpresidential election year 2002, turnout was 39 percent in the November general election and 18 percent in the party primaries.

Churches can encourage voting by asking a member to become a deputized voter registrar and help members register.

Christians also have a responsibility to be informed about officeholders and issues, the report says. “Seek out nonpartisan information.”

Participate in issue politics. Heightened commitment to citizenship often leads people to “look for ways to have a greater impact,” the report says.

“Get involved. Get to know legislators and local officials. Become an advocate for the public good. Testify at hearings. Stay aware of political developments. Share your concerns with others, including legislators and other key decision makers. Even if you are not an expert on an issue, your views are valuable.”

Participate in party politics. “Power politics have a powerful influence on decisions,” the report says.

“Christians involve themselves in party politics in order to challenge corruption, incivility, hate politics and special-interest control,” the report continues.

The report calls for greater civility in political discourse. “We need to listen to and respect the opinions of people that have different political opinions. Constructive policy decision-making comes from people with different views working together to find solutions, not from destroying the reputations of those who disagree.”

Run for political office. “Christian citizens should see public service as Christian vocation,” the report says. But it's a job with challenges and temptations.

“Running for office somewhat resembles walking into the lions' den. Candidates risk having their ethics and characters being devoured by the political process, and many who succumb to the siren song of potential power experience this very tragedy,” the report says.

“There are many alligators. The danger of running for political office is usually not a danger to the pocketbook, but a danger to the soul.”

Those warnings notwithstanding, “American politics desperately needs Christian involvement. Specifically, we need men and women who are morally secure and who are driven by the Christian vision of a just and caring society to take the risk of running for public office.”

Be involved as a church. The report spells out things churches can and cannot do if they are to retain their tax-exempt status.

Churches cannot endorse or support candidates, allow distribution of campaign literature or display of political signs, or contribute to political action committees. Churches can teach the importance of involvement, encourage people to register and vote, distribute issue information and candidates' voting records, sponsor debates or forums and invite candidates to speak, as long as all candidates are invited.

The full report is available at www.bgct.org/clc.

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.”

But the church has been doing that since its founding in 1858 by residents of what then was a 1-year-old town a day's wagon ride north of Dallas.

The Denton church, in addition to its new purpose statement, has just purchased 90 acres five miles north of its current location.

“One of the things I challenged our church with this year is to be an influence in our city,” said Jeff Williams, pastor the last seven years. “We want to show Denton we love Christ and invest our assets right here at home.”

First Baptist members helped build five Habitat for Humanity homes over the last five years. Demand has quadrupled this year at the church's food pantry. Members also assist in and financially support Denton's Our Daily Bread soup kitchen.

Until First Baptist started the FAITH strategy of evangelism through the Sunday school four years ago, it had no evangelism strategy, the pastor said.

“It's going strong,” Williams said of FAITH. “Three people were saved the first night of this semester.”

Over the last four years, baptisms have averaged more than 100 a year.

“We're pretty much like the norm,” he said. “We baptize a lot of high school and junior high school students.”

First Baptist also baptizes about 30 percent of children who make decisions for Christ during Vacation Bible School, Williams said.

“Denton County is one of the fastest-growing counties in the nation,” he said. “We have about 15,000 students in the Denton school system. Nine years from now, they're predicting 30,000. We've got a lot of young families moving in.”

Denton also is home to the University of North Texas and Texas Woman's University, which together add about 40,000 people to the city's 95,000 population.

The church ministers to its members through an upbeat blended worship, Sunday school, discipleship training, small groups and missions involvement, Williams said.

First Baptist helps support three mission churches in its association, along with one in Wisconsin and one in Indiana. Its high school students have gone to Haiti during spring break five times to work with youngsters at an orphanage and on construction projects. This year, due to political upheaval in Haiti, the teens went to Washington, D.C., where they worked in one of the nation's largest homeless shelters.

Students in First Baptist's college department in recent years have worked on mission projects in Las Vegas, Boston and New York City in conjunction with the Southern Baptist Strategic Focus Cities thrust in those metropolitan areas.

First Baptist Church of Denton's senior adults went to First Baptist Church of Huntertown, Ind., this summer to lead Vacation Bible School. Adults and teens went to Germany for nine days, where they ministered through sports camps and public schools.

First Baptist gives 10 percent of its undesignated offerings through the Cooperative Program for funding Baptist missions and ministry initiatives.

“In all, our missions budget is about 17 percent of our total budget,” Williams said. “We give to about 20 different mission ministries.”

The need for additional space has become more acute than ever this year, Williams said.

“Preschool space is at a premium,” he said. “We recently gave them the last two rooms we possibly can give them.”

The number of sixth- to 12th-grade students has increased more than 100 percent on Sunday mornings since Williams was called as pastor. Wednesday evening student attendance also has grown.

“It's going to be a challenge to grow here the next five years before we move to our new location,” Williams said. “We bought land at the edge of town because we knew we weren't going to be able to continue to grow here.”

The church's two buildings, about 130,000 square feet, are supplemented by seven houses adjacent to church property, purchased as they became available to use for Sunday school, staffing needs and missionary housing.

The church is forming a task force this fall to work out details of the construction project and move, the pastor said.

“With 90 acres of land, our opportunities for ministry are almost endless,” Williams said. “I've challenged our people to be an influence in city government and schools. I've challenged them to run for the school board, city council and for mayor.

“We believe that when Jesus said we are to be salt and light in the world, that it includes having an influence in all areas of our city,” he continued.

“It is my hope that First Baptist Church of Denton will be seen as a place of hope, healing and influence in the years to come.”

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.

Forty-seven years and 10 months after he became pastor of the Baptist church in Gage, Okla., he preached his final sermon as pastor of First Baptist Church in Stratford, Okla.

I can't remember Daddy not being a pastor, since he began preaching sermons and ministering to the folks in Gage when I was less than four months old.

When I was a kid, my friends' fathers had jobs, but I always felt like Daddy was his job.

For one thing, he never was off work. Wherever we went, he was “Brother Marvin,” even to the Methodists and Nazarenes and backsliders of all faiths. If people needed help, he'd minister to them.

For another, Daddy's life always has been so integrated that being a Christian, a minister, a pastor, a father/husband and a friend were all rolled into one complete package. He's never compartmentalized himself into the “on the job” pastor and the “off the job” private person. He knows being a Christian is itself a call to ministry, and for as long as I can remember, he's always given it everything he's got.

To tell you the truth, that probably won't change much. As Mother puts it: “We say we're retiring from the pastorate, not retiring from the ministry.” Her statement emphasizes a couple of truths.

First, quitting ministry is not an option. Not for Daddy. As long as he has breath, he'll look after the spiritual and physical needs of others. I expect he'll preach some more, too, just not in a full-time job.

Second, she said “we.” My mother's not a preacher. She's never delivered a sermon (except for a few we kids got growing up, but that's another matter). But this ministry of the pastorate always has been theirs, not just his. Frankly, I can't imagine how a pastor ever could be successful unless pastor and spouse walk together, step-by-step. And I can't conceive of that stopping now, after 50 years together.

So, after the pastorates in Gage and Stratford, as well as Borger, Dalhart, Perryton, Wichita Falls and Marlow, Okla., Mother and Daddy are retiring “from the pastorate, but not from the ministry.” They've bought their first home, and they're moving back to Marlow. And my sister, brother, all our families and I couldn't be prouder. Or more grateful to God.