2006 Archives
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Theological university president moves to Buckner post
Posted: 11/17/06
Albert Reyes, president of Baptist University of the Americas since 1999, has been named president of Buckner Children & Family Services. Theological university
president moves to Buckner postDALLAS—In a move with implications for three Baptist General Convention of Texas organizations, Albert Reyes has been named president of Buckner Children & Family Services, which is being revamped to expand its ministries throughout the United States and internationally.
Reyes, 47, has been president of Baptist University of the Americas in San Antonio since 1999. He assumes his duties at Buckner International, the parent organization of Buckner Children & Family Services, Jan. 1.
Both Buckner International and Baptist University of the Americas are affiliated with the BGCT. Reyes also had been mentioned prominently as a possible eventual successor to Charles Wade, head of the BGCT Executive Board.
Buckner International President Ken Hall appointed Reyes to the new position. Hall called the selection of Reyes “one of the most strategic and vital decisions” in the 127-year history of Buckner.
11/17/2006 - By John Rutledge
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Tennessee Baptists move to the right
Posted: 11/17/06
Tennessee Baptists move to the right
By Robert Marus
Associated Baptist Press
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (ABP)—Tennessee Baptists voted overwhelmingly Nov. 14 to publicize whether nominees to leadership posts in the convention affirm the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message, a controversial confession of faith adopted by the national Southern Baptist Convention.
Messengers to Tennessee Baptist Convention’s annual meeting, held at Bellevue Baptist Church in suburban Memphis, also elected a conservative candidate as president and heard an update from a committee dealing with a dispute between the convention and one of its affiliated colleges.
11/17/2006 - By John Rutledge
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Texas Tidbits
Posted: 11/17/06
Texas Tidbits
BGCT attendance lowest in decades. The Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting in Dallas drew 1,990 messengers and 820 guests—the lowest attendance in more than 50 years. The last time the messenger count dipped below the 2,000 mark was the 1949 convention in El Paso, which attracted 1,667 messengers. The largest attendance was the 1991 convention in Waco, which drew 11,159 messengers and 310 visitors.
Campus competition draws blood. Students at Dallas Baptist University declared victory over the faculty and staff in a contest to donate the most blood during the 2006 Carter BloodCare-DBU Blood Drive. In total, 99 DBU students, faculty and staff donated blood—with students forming a significant majority. Last year, DBU won Carter BloodCare’s Highest Amount of Donors award for colleges and universities in the region.
11/17/2006 - By John Rutledge
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TOGETHER: ‘We will bring credibility & integrity’
Posted: 11/17/06
TOGETHER:
‘We will bring credibility & integrity’Getsemani Baptist Church in McAllen has been in the news lately, and it has not been an enjoyable experience for this committed congregation. Financial dealings of the church’s former pastor, Otto Arango, have been called into question by an independent investigation commissioned by the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Arango, however, has not been pastor of the church for about three years.
Messengers from Getsemani Church, including Pastor Thomas Whitehouse, were at the BGCT annual meeting and spoke openly to a group gathered with me for a question-and-answer time. They shared about their situation, their hurt and their desire to make sure all Texas Baptists and others are aware that the church did not know of the matters identified in the investigators’ report.
Executive Director
BGCT Executive Board
This church also gave more money through the BGCT Cooperative Program last year than any other Texas Hispanic church—$31,220.
The Executive Board and I want to express our deep appreciation for the work of the churches and pastors in the Rio Grande Valley. Our Baptist work in the Valley related to the accusations of fraud has been in the media, and our brothers and sisters in the churches there have felt wounded and embarrassed. We are working with them to help deal with the media perceptions and to tell the wonderful stories of Baptist life in the Valley.
11/17/2006 - By John Rutledge
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Movie views evangelicals as key environmental reformers
Posted: 11/17/06
The Great Warming, a movie about climate change and the initiatives aimed at reversing its trend toward permanent ecologic damage. Movie views evangelicals as
key environmental reformersBy Hannah Elliott
Associated Baptist Press
DALLAS (ABP)—A Canadian film team has released in United States theatres The Great Warming, a movie about climate change and the initiatives aimed at reversing its trend toward permanent ecologic damage.
Unlike other recent environmental movies, like Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, The Great Warming portrays evangelicals as a group with the potential to push governmental policies toward sustainable living.
11/17/2006 - By John Rutledge
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Executive Board votes to explore criminal charges, recovery of Valley funds
Posted: 11/13/06
Executive Board votes to explore
criminal charges, recovery of Valley fundsBy Ken Camp
Managing Editor
DALLAS—At a called closed-door meeting prior to the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting, the BGCT Executive Board voted to implement all of the recommendations of an investigative team that discovered mismanagement and misuse of church starting funds in the Rio Grande Valley.
The board also directed BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade to explore with legal counsel “the full range of methods for recovery of funds” and determine whether to refer the reports’ findings to law enforcement.
Newly elected BGCT officers are First Vice President, Joy Fenner; President, Steve Vernon; and Second Vice President, Roberto Rodriguez . (BGCT Photo by Robert Rogers) 11/16/2006 - By John Rutledge
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Pattern of exaggeration repeated in Mexico, observers say
Posted: 11/10/06
Pattern of exaggeration
repeated in Mexico, observers sayBy Ken Camp
Managing Editor
Otto Arango exported church planting strategies he developed in South Texas to Latin America through the Piper Institute for Church Planting, a 2-year-old nonprofit corporation that evolved from the Institute for Church Planting he founded in McAllen.
But some observers familiar with his church starting initiatives in Mexico assert Arango—the central figure in an investigation that revealed misuse and mismanagement of Baptist General Convention of Texas church starting funds in the Rio Grande Valley—also exported a pattern of exaggerated claims.
11/13/2006 - By John Rutledge
