BGCT clears hurdle toward BWA membership_20705

Posted: 2/04/05

BGCT clears hurdle toward BWA membership

By Ferrell Foster

Texas Baptist Communications

The North American Baptist Fellowship–one of six regional bodies in the Baptist World Alliance–voted in January to accept the Baptist General Convention of Texas as a member.

02/04/2005 - By John Rutledge

Book Reviews_20705

Posted: 2/04/05

Book Reviews

Who Can You Trust? Overcoming Betrayal and Fear

by Howard E. Butt Jr. (WaterBrook Press)

Whether we're talking husbands and wives, clergy and congregations, or co-workers and bosses, trust issues challenge every human relationship. For a culture that seems to live so easily at the extremes of cynicism and gullibility, Howard Butt provides a careful and much-needed reflection on the “narrow way” of trust and even timely mistrust.

02/04/2005 - By John Rutledge

Baptist Briefs_20705

Posted: 2/04/05

Baptist Briefs

BUA volunteers share gospel in four Latin American countries_20705

Posted: 2/04/05

BUA students and members of a local churches in Guayaquil, Ecuador, spent the pre-dawn hours on Christmas morning giving hot chocolate and sandwiches to homeless people, including a man living in a cardboard box. A group of boys in Ecuador listen to the gospel, presented by students from Baptist University of the Americas. (Photo courtesy of Baptist University of the Americas)

BUA volunteers share gospel in
four Latin American countries

By Craig Bird

Baptist University of the Americas

SAN ANTONIO–Students at Baptist University of the Americas take the “Americas” part of their school's name seriously.

02/04/2005 - By John Rutledge

Cartoon_20705

Posted: 2/04/05 We're reaching heavenward to change a lightbulb, so we built this Tower of Bible." " News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist…

02/04/2005 - By John Rutledge

Cybercolumn by John Duncan: Tears tell tale of love_20705

Posted: 2/04/05

CYBERCOLUMN:
Tears tell tale of love

By John Duncan

I’m sitting here under the old oak tree, thinking of tears. Tears fall between the ears; they fall in the midst of years.

Just recently, I watched CNN detail a train wreck in Los Angeles. A suicidal man parked his SUV on the railroad track in an apparent suicide attempt. He fled his vehicle at the last minute. The parked vehicle derailed a train.

02/04/2005 - By John Rutledge

DOWN HOME: Growing old is a dog-gone shame_20705

Posted: 2/04/05

DOWN HOME:
Growing old is a dog-gone shame

Nobody warned me about old age.

Let's inventory the woes: They say memory is the first to go, but I'd say hearing begins to fail before that. Then there are stiff and rickety joints, as well as fitful sleeping and voluminous snoring, when slumber finally settles in. Don't forget general grouchiness, born of a newly discovered selfishness. Finally–dare I say it in a family newspaper?–the onset of incontinence.

She's getting harder and harder to live with. More and more trouble. Less and less appreciation.

02/04/2005 - By John Rutledge

EDITORIAL: Baptists will (no, must) share opinions_20705

Posted: 2/04/05

EDITORIAL:
Baptists will (no, must) share opinions

Baptists often paraphrase the words of Jesus recorded in Matthew 18:20: “For where two or three come together in my name, they will have four or five opinions.”

We have to laugh, or else we would cry. We're a diverse–and assertive–group of Christians. We have one Lord, one baptism, one Bible and one church. But we're still beset by a multitude of opinions. Need proof? Sit in a discussion-oriented Sunday school class. Or attend your church's next business meeting. If opinions were nickels, we'd never have trouble balancing our budgets.

Texas Baptists' diverse opinions surfaced during the past couple of weeks, in the wake of the Standard's package of articles on immigration. We interviewed an illegal immigrant who happens to be a deacon. We heard from Texas Baptists who have pioneered ministry to immigrants. And we discussed the need for new immigration laws.

02/04/2005 - By John Rutledge

Six steps to launch small groups for seekers_20705

Posted: 2/04/05

Six steps to launch small groups for seekers

By Ferrell Foster

Texas Baptist Communications

IRVING–Garry Poole asked a room of more than 150 Christians to do an “attitude check” to determine if non-Christians “really matter” to them.

02/04/2005 - By John Rutledge

Churches challenged to recapture ‘apostolic ethos’_20705

Posted: 2/04/05

Churches challenged to recapture 'apostolic ethos'

By Ferrell Foster

Texas Baptist Communications

IRVING–Christians are not to be curators of antiquities; they are to be God's witnesses, a Princeton Theological Seminary professor told a Texas Baptist conference.

02/04/2005 - By John Rutledge

Churches neglecting to teach them to observe_20705

Posted: 2/04/05

Churches neglecting to teach them to observe

By Ferrell Foster

Texas Baptist Communications

IRVING–The church today often is not functioning the way it did in New Testament times because too many Christians have overlooked the “teaching them to observe” phrase in Christ's Great Commission, said Pastor Jeff Harris of Grace Point Church in San Antonio.

02/04/2005 - By John Rutledge

California pastor sees parallels between first and 21st centuries_20705

Posted: 2/04/05

California pastor sees parallels
between first and 21st centuries

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

IRVING–God has uniquely positioned Christians in the United States to have an impact around the world as he used the Roman Empire in the first century, said John Lo, pastor of Epicentre Church in Pasadena, Calif.

02/04/2005 - By John Rutledge