2005 Archives
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Book Reviews_62705
Posted: 6/24/05
Book Reviews
Gentle Mercies by Hal Haralson (Cook Communica-tions)
Hal Haralson writes refreshingly of ordinary life lived in an extraordinary manner. Calling himself a country lawyer, he recounts his days of departing from a pastoral ministry and coping with the darkness of mental illness while managing to walk in faith. He does so with wry humor and warmth.
Along the way, we are introduced to cowboys struggling for faith, bag ladies leaving fortunes for mental patients, bankers hearing voices and pickup trucks taking on personalities of their own. We discover smiles of shared memories and solemn moments of remembered struggles. We experience a fresh touch of the reality of authentic faith.
06/24/2005 - By John Rutledge
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Baptist Briefs_62705
Posted: 6/24/05
Baptist Briefs
ABP dinner slated at CBF meeting. Wilmer C. Fields, a pioneer in Baptist journalism, will be the featured speaker at the annual Associated Baptist Press dinner at the CBF General Assembly, 5:15 p.m. on June 30 at the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport Marriott, three miles from the headquarters hotel for the CBF meeting. Fields served from 1959 to 1987 as vice president for public relations of the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention and editor of Baptist Press, the SBC's news service. As part of its "Dateline: Tomorrow" development campaign, ABP is raising money to endow a staff editorship in Field's name to honor his legacy. Cost is $25 for the barbecue buffet dinner, and transportation is provided. Mail payment to Associated Baptist Press, P.O. Box 23769, Jacksonville, FL 32241-3769 or call (800) 340-6626.
SBC Executive Committee president granted honorary doctorate. Morris Chapman, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee, joined Chief Justice William Reinquist and Laura Schlessinger, host of the popular "Dr. Laura" radio program, in receiving an honorary doctorate from Grand Canyon University in Phoenix. Chapman is a graduate of Mississippi College and earned the master of divinity and doctor of ministry degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth. He has received two other honorary doctorates–one from Mississippi College and the other from Southwest Baptist University in Missouri. Others receiving honorary doctorates from Grand Canyon University included Sam Moore, CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers; Gerald Cramer, co-founder of a Wall Street financial firm; Stephen Douglass, president of Campus Crusade for Christ; Rufus Glasper, chancellor of Maricopa Community Colleges; Naomi Judd, a retired country music entertainer; Bryan Lee, an attorney; Joyce Meyer, a speaker and author; and Stanley Moger, an entertainment industry pioneer.
Moderate Missouri Baptists approve strategic plan. The Baptist General Convention of Missouri approved a strategic plan and elected Jim Hill as executive director during the convention's annual meeting. Hill, named interim executive director at last year's meeting, will become permanent but continue to serve part-time. He formerly was executive director of the larger and older Missouri Baptist Convention. The five-year strategic plan, called First Priority, includes initiatives in leadership development, congregational health, church planting and missions mobilization. Messengers also adopted a 2005-06 budget of $500,000, which earmarks 60 percent for its own ministries and 40 percent to Missouri ministries, such as Word&Way newspaper, Windermere Baptist Conference Center, Missouri Baptist University, William Jewell College, Missouri Baptist Foundation and Missouri Baptist Children's Home. World-missions funds will benefit the Baptist World Alliance, North American Baptist Fellowship and WorldconneX, the missions network launched by the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
06/24/2005 - By John Rutledge
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BUA graduate marks milestone, but wife’s visa denied_62705
Posted: 6/24/05
Joel Gomez-Bossio (left) of Colombia is pictured with fellow Baptist University of the Americas graduates (left to right) Alberto Guzman, a Cuban national now a pastor in Homestead, Fla.; Angelica Hernandez, a Mexican national whose husband now is pastor in Bandera; and Juan Hilario, a Mexican national now a church planter in Johnson City, Tenn. (Photo by Allan Escobar/BUA) BUA graduate marks
milestone, but wife's visa deniedBy Craig Bird
Special to the Baptist Standard
SAN ANTONIO–Joel Gomez-Bossio has no doubt God called him to prepare for ministry and led him into marriage. He even has faith that someday he can be involved in both simultaneously.
06/24/2005 - By John Rutledge
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Cyber Column by John Duncan: The presence of Christ_62705
Posted: 6/24/05
CYBER COLUMN:
The presence of ChristBy John Duncan
John Duncan I’m sitting here under the old oak tree, thinking about the presence of Christ. Jesus said, “I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you do what you have heard from your father” (John 8:38).
The poet Gerard Manley Hopkins details Christ’s presence in his poem As Kingfishers Catch Fire:
06/24/2005 - By John Rutledge
