2005 Archives
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Christian rock bridges secular and sacred music worlds
Posted: 8/19/05
Christian rock bridges
secular and sacred music worldsBy Beau Black
Religion News Service
WASHINGTON (RNS)–A rock 'n' roll revival? Better believe it. Soaring sales mean Christian rock is elbowing its way onto the forefront of the Christian music industry.
Switchfoot 08/19/2005 - By John Rutledge
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EDITORIAL: Battle against hunger picks up allies
Posted: 8/19/05
EDITORIAL:
Battle against hunger picks up alliesMaybe it's too early to declare a trend. But this summer, I attended four major religious gatherings (three Baptist, one evangelically ecumenical) and heard the same message over and over: Christians can lead the world in making poverty history and eliminating hunger.
On the eve of the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting, David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, urged Baptist journalists to seek global debt relief. Specifically, he requested support for the ONE Campaign, which asks the U.S. government to allocate an additional 1 percent of its budget (up from less than 1 percent) to provide basic healthcare, education, clean water and food to “transform the futures and hopes of an entire generation of the poorest countries.” It urges the world's wealthiest countries to forgive the debt of the poorest nations. Beckmann also asked Baptists to call on Congress to pass the Hunger-Free Communities Act of 2005. Its goal is to end hunger in the United States by 2015.
A week later, at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship general assembly, Coordinator Daniel Vestal repeated his charge that Baptists ought to be at the forefront of meeting the physical needs of the very people Jesus called “the least of these.” They're the 1 billion people who live on less than $1 per day, including 800 million who teeter on the brink of starvation in what demographers call “deep hunger.”
08/19/2005 - By John Rutledge
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Texas Baptist Forum
Posted: 8/19/05
Texas Baptist Forum
Danger of 'relevance'
Some years ago, Elton Trueblood warned of the cult of contemporaneity. The church can become so obsessed with being relevant that it becomes irrelevant. If the church in its quest to be cool like the culture around it becomes so indistinguishable from the slovenly and often immodest attire, lingo and music, who needs it?
People get that every day in movies, television, popular music and life in general.
Letters are welcomed. Send them to marvknox@baptiststandard.com; 250 words maximum.
"He's at total peace, which makes me think it's really the right decision. There's no second-guessing; there's no struggling. In fact, he told me, 'Anne, I have perfect peace.'"
Anne Graham Lotz
Author and speaker, discussing the decision by her father, evangelist Billy Graham, to quit preaching crusades (Associated Press/RNS)"As we continue to try to politicize God, or market God, or say that America is Christian, or that God is with one (political) party, or that God is here and not there, it only further points to the fact that we don't understand how big God is–and how great God is."
T.D. Jakes
Pastor of the Potter's House in Dallas (USA Today/RNS)"What everyone can do is to see those … we'd rather not see with new eyes, whether they be the homeless, the outcast, the terrorist, those who irritate us, our enemies. And each time we see them, repeat to ourselves that we are seeing a precious child of God."
Lauran Bethell
American Baptist global consultant and recipient of the Baptist World Alliance's Human Rights Award, who works to aid women trapped in prostitution (American Baptist News Service/RNS)08/19/2005 - By John Rutledge
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Irving church becomes missions learning lab for students
Posted: 8/19/05
Student missionaries leading worship for children. They sang songs such as "Zacchaeus," "Father Abraham" and "Jesus Loves Me." Irving church becomes
missions learning lab for studentsBy Leann Callaway
Special to the Baptist Standard
IRVING–The missions program of Oak View Baptist Church became a learning lab for eight student missionaries this summer.
08/19/2005 - By John Rutledge
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Baylor professor a delegate to ONE Campaign summit
Posted: 8/19/05
Jon Singletary, center, spends time with two African orphans, Peter and Paul. Baylor professor a delegate
to ONE Campaign summitBy Carla Wynn
Cooperative Baptist Fellowship
WACO–A passion commitment to end poverty in Africa and a newspaper editorial describing the continent's needs landed Baylor Uni-versity professor Jon Singletary in Edin-burgh, Scotland, when the world's eight wealthiest nations gathered in nearby Gleneagles for this summer's G-8 Summit.
08/19/2005 - By John Rutledge
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Texas Tidbits
Posted: 8/19/05
Texas Tidbits
Churches, associations honored. The Baptist General Convention of Texas honored three churches and three associations for their work in starting African-American churches. First South-west Baptist Church in Houston, where Rickie Bradshaw is pastor, received the Antioch Award for starting the most African-American churches in the last two years–14 congregations. Sure Foundation Baptist Church in Dallas started the second-most congregations with nine, and Lakeside Baptist Church in Dallas started eight. Dallas Baptist Association, where Gary Hearon is executive director, received the Barnabas Award for the association starting the most African-American churches–37 congregations. Union Baptist Association started 35, and Waco Baptist Association started 13. Glenn Majors, director of BGCT Cooperative Program services, received the first E.B. Brooks Excellence in Service Award for encouraging and connecting new African-American churches with BGCT resources.
Byron WeathersbeeBaylor names interim chaplain. Byron Weathersbee, co-founder and president of Legacy Family Ministries, has been appointed interim university chaplain at Baylor University. Weathersbee, 42, will provide leadership for Baylor's twice-weekly chapel services, and pastoral care to the university community. He also will lead university ministries, directing resident chaplains, discipline-specific mission opportunities and the sports chaplain program, as well as relating to Baptist Student Ministries. Weathers-bee is a graduate of Baylor, and he earned a master's degree in religious education from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and a doctor of education degree in leadership from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He has served in staff positions at First Baptist Church in Gatesville, Immanuel Baptist Church in Temple and Columbus Avenue and University Baptist churches in Waco. In 1995, Weathersbee and his wife, Carla, founded Legacy Family Ministries, a nonprofit organization that does relationship development with students, marriage preparation courses for engaged couples and family camp weekends. The Weathersbees have three children–Bo, 18; Brittney, 16; and Casey, 12. They are members of Columbus Avenue Baptist Church.
BGCT revises church profiling efforts. The Baptist General Convention of Texas is revising the way it attains yearly information about churches in an effort to better serve its constituency. The convention is streamlining the traditional LifeWay Annual Church Profile reporting form from 51 categories to 17 to make it easier for congregations to indicate aspects of their respective ministries. BGCT leaders also are making category titles more generalized rather than program-specific to accommodate a wider range of outreaches. The new process will have fewer stewardship categories because some financial data can be based on actual funds given through the BGCT. Church contributions for the Texas Cooperative Program, Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas Missions, Annie Armstrong Offering for North American Missions and Lottie Moon Offering for International Missions already are known and do not need to be reported through the ACP. The new forms will be capable of being scanned to help associations cut down on the amount of data entry required for each church.
08/19/2005 - By John Rutledge
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TOGETHER: This could be God’s perfect time for us
Posted: 8/19/05
TOGETHER:
This could be God's perfect time for usThe Samaritan woman came to the well at noonday. It was a terrible time to have to fetch water but God's perfect time for her. That day, she met a man who gave her Living Water. And she was never the same again.
Jesus Christ Living Water was the theme for the centenary Baptist World Congress in Birmingham, England, where a drama troupe from Tallowood Baptist Church in Houston helped us understand at a deeper level the gift Jesus brings to thirsty souls. The Tallowood Players is a team of 13 high school students, selected from the 90-member youth choir and led by Randy Kilpatrick, the church's associate minister of music and founder of the drama ministry.
Executive Director
BGCT Executive Board
Baptists of the world loved them. As a Texan, I was justifiably proud that they represented Texas Baptists, their church, their families and their Savior with such grace and poise. What did it mean to them to be there?
08/19/2005 - By John Rutledge
Ron Cook has completed an interim pastorate at First Church in Mart. 
