2006 Archives
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Warm affection, cool discipline key to parenting
Posted: 11/17/06
Warm affection, cool discipline key to parenting
By Miranda Bradley
Children at Heart Ministries
DALLAS—It takes positive attitudes and strong relationships to be a “cool” parent, said C.V. Blake, pastor to young and median adults at First Baptist Church in Abilene.
“I always tell my kids, ‘I will love you warmly and discipline you coolly,’” he said during a workshop held in conjunction with the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting.
C.V. Blake of First Baptist Church in Abilene leads a seminar on parenting during the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting 11/17/2006 - By John Rutledge
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Piper Institute board votes to dissolve at year’s end
Posted: 11/17/06
Piper Institute board votes to dissolve at year’s end
By Ken Camp
Managing Editor
A church planting institute founded by Otto Arango—the central figure in an investigation that revealed misuse and mismanagement of Texas Baptist church starting funds in the Rio Grande Valley—will cease to exist at the end of this year.
At a called meeting in Dallas Nov. 14, the Piper Institute for Church Planting board of directors voted unanimously to dissolve the corporation, effective Dec. 31.
11/17/2006 - By John Rutledge
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Churches can help members deal with sexual addiction
Posted: 11/17/06
Churches can help members
deal with sexual addictionBy Teresa Young
Wayland Baptist University
DALLAS—Even though many churches might choose to believe otherwise, most congregations have members facing sexual addition issues, said Darin Griffiths, licensed professional counselor with South Texas Children’s Home family ministry in Corpus Christi.
Griffiths believes the only way healing will occur is by providing a safe haven to deal with the issue.
11/17/2006 - By John Rutledge
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Mission testimonies highlight TBM rally
Posted: 11/17/06
Texas Baptist Men Executive Director Leo Smith describes how God is working through Texas Baptist Men during the group's rally before the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting. (Photo by Craig Bird) Mission testimonies highlight TBM rally
By Craig Bird
Baptist Child & Family Services
DALLAS—A new partnership between Texas Baptist Men and Walking In Love Ministries is revitalizing the outreach of three Baptist hospitals in Nigeria, participants at the Texas Baptist Men’s rally learned.
Six mission reports highlighted the rally, held prior to the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting in Dallas.
• See complete list of convention articles11/17/2006 - By John Rutledge
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CWJC graduate gains national honors
Posted: 11/17/06
CWJC graduate gains national honors
By Ken Camp
Managing Editor
DALLAS—Dallas Christian Women’s Job Corps graduate Patrice Oats recently received national recognition as recipient of the Sybil Bentley Dove Endowment Award—a financial prize from Woman’s Missionary Union intended to help determined women rebuild their lives.
Oats—who works at two Dallas hospitals and is completing her nursing degree at Texas Woman’s University in Denton—already has made strides in that direction.
Patrice Oats, a graduate of Dallas Christian Women’s Job Corps, received the national Sybil Bentley Dove Endowment Award recently at Ridgecrest Conference Center in Asheville, N.C. 11/17/2006 - By John Rutledge
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Moving On: Board ‘pre-empted’ BGCT by recommending reforms
Posted: 11/17/06
Praying for healing from financial scandal, Texas Baptists gathered for their annual meeting in Dallas. (Photo by Eric Guel) Moving On: Board ‘pre-empted’
BGCT by recommending reformsBy Ken Camp
Managing Editor
DALLAS—With “Together We are Doing More” as their stated theme and healing from financial scandal as the subtext woven through every session of their annual meeting, Texas Baptists met in Dallas to chart their course for the next year.
Messengers to the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting elected officers, adopted a $50.6 million budget and went on record speaking out in favor of environmental stewardship and against human trafficking.
• See complete list of convention articles11/17/2006 - By John Rutledge
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EDITORIAL: Churches next to ‘vote’ on BGCT future
Posted: 11/17/06
EDITORIAL:
Churches next to ‘vote’ on BGCT futureNow, the real voting begins.
Each autumn, the Baptist General Convention of Texas holds an annual meeting to conduct its business. Because the folks who oppose the Southern Baptist Convention’s fundamentalist trajectory have been so effective at rallying their faithful, votes on the BGCT’s most significant actions in the past two decades have been lopsided. Year after year, convention messengers approved proposals distancing the state convention from the national convention.
However, a vote on the convention floor doesn’t necessarily translate into similar action by the churches. Year after year, the churches took “votes” that really mattered—deciding how they would respond to convention actions. Many of them exercised their convention-mandated freedom to make decisions contrary to the overwhelming will of messengers at the annual meeting.
So, now we realize the measure of an annual meeting isn’t known until the churches decide how they will respond to convention actions.
11/17/2006 - By John Rutledge
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Texas Baptist Forum
Posted: 11/17/06
Texas Baptist Forum
Business skills
The Rio Grande Valley scandal is quite a blow. I hope this incident is not symbolic of a general ineptness in Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board management. We probably have some people in our BGCT management who need to be replaced, but I’m not advocating a general housecleaning.
• Jump to online-only letters below Letters are welcomed. Send them to marvknox@baptiststandard.com; 250 words maximum. 
“I’m not an arm-waver and a clapper and a dancer. Music doesn’t do that to me, although it stirs me inside.”
Bill Hybels
Pastor of Willow Creek Community Church, a Chicago-area megachurch, speaking about how he chooses to stand, eyes closed in contemplation, while others in his sanctuary sway and wave their arms in praise (Chicago Tribune/RNS)“God’s promise to us was that we would have entrance into the hearts of the ungodly without them knowing it.”
Matthew Crouch
Producer of the new film One Night With the King, based on the biblical story of Esther, telling Texas pastors about his efforts to use the film to influence culture (Dallas Morning News/RNS)“If we’re not willing to use it here against our fellow citizens, then we should not be willing to use it in a wartime situation.”
Michael Wynne
Air Force secretary, suggesting nonlethal weapons, such as high-power microwave devices, should be used on American citizens in crowd-control situations before being used on the battlefield (CNN.com)My experience is that most ministers, while they may be excellent pastors, are not very good business managers. They don’t want to put forth the time and effort to properly manage the business affairs of the church, or in the Valley case, the business affairs of the Valley ministry.
Good management of a multi-million-dollar budget won’t just happen. It requires managers with good business skills. I’ll state without fear of contradiction that if the BGCT had good business practices in place, that were followed by BGCT management, there is no way the Valley scandal would have occurred.
11/17/2006 - By John Rutledge
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N.C. Baptists bar gay-friendly churches
Posted: 11/17/06
N.C. Baptists bar gay-friendly churches
By Steve DeVane & Rob Marus
Biblical Recorder & Associated Baptist Press
GREENSBORO, N.C. (ABP)—Baptist churches in North Carolina will have to deny membership to gays or face expulsion from the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina.
Messengers to the convention’s annual meeting voted Nov. 14 to add language to its governing documents that will exclude from convention membership any church thought to affirm homosexual behavior.
11/17/2006 - By John Rutledge
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Religious freedom violators noted
Posted: 11/17/06
Religious freedom violators noted
By Keith Roshangar
Religion News Service
WASHINGTON (RNS)—The U.S. State Department has sent Congress its list of countries that are the worst violators of religious freedom—adding Uzbekistan but dropping Vietnam.
Seven “countries of particular concern” from last year’s list returned this year—Burma, China, North Korea, Eritrea, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Sudan. The eighth annual report on international religious freedom was released in September; its list of problem countries was issued Nov. 13.
11/17/2006 - By John Rutledge
