• Churches and charities slow to feel effects of economic recovery, analysts point out_41904

  Posted: 4/16/04

  Churches and charities slow to feel
  effects of economic recovery, analysts point out

  By Mark O'Keefe

  Religion New Service

  WASHINGTON (RNS)–A rising stock market and recovering economy have many of the nation's 1.2 million nonprofits feeling optimistic again, but it could take months–even years–before they see big financial benefits.

  04/16/2004 - By John Rutledge

• Churches must face up to hard financial truth, speaker says_41904

  Posted: 4/16/04

  Churches must face up to hard financial truth, speaker says

  By Tony Cartledge

  Biblical Recorder

  BLACK MOUNTAIN, N.C. (ABP)–Churches, conventions and Christians face a bleak future if congregational leaders do not actively engage cultural shifts and the perils of consumerism, speakers recently told a national stewardship conference.

  04/16/2004 - By John Rutledge

• 

  Baptists flood Piedras Negras with assistance_41904

  Posted: 4/16/04

  Pastor Israel Rogriguez encourages one of the families from his church, Primera Iglesia Bautista in Piedras Negras, as they struggle to clean up after the flood devastated their home. This home is about three blocks from the Rio Escondido that flooded April 4 for the first time in at least 100 years. At right, Baptist University of the Americas students (from left) Cheyenne Solis of Texas, Josue DeAlva of Puerto Rico, Carlos Valencia of Colombia and Paco Perez of New Mexico help clean out the contents of a flood-ruined home in Piedras Negras.

  Baptists flood Piedras Negras with assistance

  By Craig Bird

  Texas Baptist Communications

  PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Mexico–A killer flood shattered the heart of Villa de Fuente on a recent Sunday evening. In the days that followed, Mexico and Texas Baptists worked side-by-side in the Piedras Negras neighborhood to get it beating again.

  04/16/2004 - By John Rutledge

• 

  Flood victim calms children with Noah’s ark story_41904

  Posted: 4/16/04

  Flood victim calms children with Noah's ark story

  By Craig Bird

  Texas Baptist Communications

  PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Mexico–As a relentless flood poured through the bedroom windows, Ramona Juarez calmed her terrified grandson with the story of Noah's Ark.

  04/16/2004 - By John Rutledge

• Evangelicals oppose gay marriage, but not a ‘litmus test’_41904

  Posted: 4/16/04

  Evangelicals oppose gay marriage, but not a 'litmus test'

  By Rob Marus

  ABP Washington Bureau

  WASHINGTON (ABP)–A landmark study of American evangelical Christians released this month determined, among several findings, that evangelicals oppose gay marriage but are lukewarm in their support for a constitutional amendment to ban it.

  04/16/2004 - By John Rutledge

• Ministers use high-tech tools to capture attention of media-savvy children_41904

  Posted: 4/16/04

  Ministers use high-tech tools to capture
  attention of media-savvy children

  By Barbara Neff

  Religion News Service

  GRAYSLAKE, Ill. (RNS)– Six years ago, Dan Huffman abandoned his lucrative career as a software development consultant to become a full-time youth minister.

  04/16/2004 - By John Rutledge

• 

  Texas Baptist Forum_41904

  Posted: 4/16/04

  TEXAS BAPTIST FORUM
  Baptists & Pentecostals

  “What can Baptists learn from Pentecostals, and what can Pentecostals learn from Baptists?” asks Professor Roger Olson of Truett Theological Seminary (April 5).

  While I respect Christians who are Pentecostals and have friends among them, I cannot find much common ground with them doctrinally.

  E-mail the editor at marvknox@baptiststandard.com

  Baptists can teach Pentecostals that salvation is by grace, and if by grace then not of works (Romans 11:6, Ephesians 2:8-9). Since salvation is by grace, the correlating doctrine is “once saved, always saved” (John 10:27-30). Pentecostals claim these doctrines are dangerous and even heretical.

  04/16/2004 - By John Rutledge

• 

  Learn power of speech and silence, Gordon urges students_41904

  Posted: 4/16/04

  Learn power of speech and silence, Gordon urges students

  By Marv Knox

  Editor

  ABILENE–Christians fight because they don't understand the “power and poison” of both speech and silence, Carolyn Gordon told participants at Logsdon School of Theology's Maston Christian Ethics Lectures.

  04/16/2004 - By John Rutledge

• Louisiana College considers textbook policy_41904

  Posted: 4/16/04

  Louisiana College considers textbook policy

  PINEVILLE, La. (ABP)–Louisiana College trustees, whose December decision to screen all classroom materials was criticized as a violation of academic freedom, will consider an even stricter textbook policy when they meet this month.

  Trustee Leon Hyatt is proposing a policy that would bring the college–and specifically classroom materials–in line with “the principle that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant and infallible word of God.”

  The policy also would prohibit any “approval or portrayal of profanity, sexual activity outside of marriage, homosexuality, pornography or other illicit sexual expressions.”

  04/16/2004 - By John Rutledge

• BGCT, Hardin-Simmons acquire noted historian’s books, notes, manuscripts_41904

  Posted: 4/16/04

  BGCT, Hardin-Simmons acquire
  noted historian's books, notes, manuscripts

  Hardin-Simmons University and the Baptist General Convention of Texas have acquired rare books, manuscripts, notes and other materials on Baptist heritage gathered by Texas Baptist historian Leon McBeth.

  “I am pleased that this collection of materials that represents a large part of my life's work will be available for use in the years to come,” said McBeth, who recently retired as distinguished professor of church history at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth.

  The entire "general inventory" of the extensive collection is almost 300 pages long, said Alan Lefever, director of the Texas Baptist Historical Collection in Dallas.

  04/16/2004 - By John Rutledge

• Miracle Farm not tied to bikers’ rally, boys’ ranch ministry leaders explain_41904

  Posted: 4/16/04

  Miracle Farm not tied to bikers' rally,
  boys' ranch ministry leaders explain

  Promotional materials for the upcoming Dawgs on Hawgs bikers' rally at Somerville claim its proceeds will support charities including “Miracle Farm.”

  But the beneficiary is not the boys' ranch in Brenham, said Jack Meeker, Miracle Farm executive director.

  "As a nonprofit Christian-based boys' ranch program promoting positive values and restoration for at-risk teenage boys struggling to turn their lives around, our mission simply does not coincide with the activity currently being promoted by Dawgs on Hawgs," Meeker said. "We would not choose that activity as an avenue to raise support for our organization."

  04/16/2004 - By John Rutledge

• 

  On the Move_41904

  Posted: 4/16/04

  On the Move

  Butch Allen to LaWard Church in LaWard as pastor.

  Debi Arnold to Southmont Church in Denton as youth minister.

  Ron Boswell to First Church in Linden as interim pastor.

  04/16/2004 - By John Rutledge