Posted: 7/07/06

Longview church in home of its own

By Laura Frase

Communications Intern

LONGVIEW—As a worship service ends, Pastor Willie Cabrera invites church members and visitors to move from the sanctuary to a fellowship event in the church’s kitchen.

It’s a special time because having a kitchen to move to—or a worship center to move from—marks a new day for Primera Iglesia Bautista in Longview.

Since Primera Iglesia Bautista’s birth in 1977, the church has been without its own facilities until recently.

Mobberly Baptist Church adopted the church in 1984, not long after Mobberly began another Hispanic mission in South Longview in 1983.

Primera Iglesia Bautista has been meeting and worshipping at Mobberly Baptist Church the past six years, but it needed a place to call its own.

Former Primera Iglesia Bautista Pastor Reuben Guerrero explained that when a person stays in another person’s home, it’s awkward—and sometimes rude—to invite people over.

“They will be able to invite them to their own home,” he said. “Now they can say, ‘Come and dine with us.’ That’s their kitchen!”

Mobberly Baptist Church and Primera Iglesia Bautista worked together to raise money for the new facilities. In 30 years, the churches overcame numerous obstacles to purchase the facilities, said Joe Parnell, Mobberly’s minister of missions.

“God’s timing is a mystery,” Parnell said. “We tried to buy this building five years ago, but God did not open these doors. … We didn’t want to put them in debt, and the price and amount of money we had raised at the time would have put them into serious debt.”

“A true blessing” came when Mobberly Baptist Church sold land it purchased several years ago that had appreciated in value, Parnell said. The money was put into Primera Iglesia Bautista’s building fund.

“God finally opened up” the doors, Parnell said. And Primera Iglesia Bautista purchased the building its members now call home.

“We dreamed of this day for a long time,” Parnell said.

“The church has a chance for their vision, their dream to be fulfilled,” Guerrero added.

While the church now has a permanent home, the relationship between the two congregations will continue.

“Our church plans to be part of this ministry,” said Rick Gabehart of Mobberly Baptist Church.

“We plan to work side-by-side to grow.”

The Hispanic congregation feels grateful for Mobberly Baptist Church’s help and continuing support.

“We don’t deserve this place, but we want to dedicate it to God,” Cabrera said. “We look to the future. … For the church, a new life has begun.”

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 7/07/06

Charges dismissed against Missouri institutions

By Vicki Brown

Word & Way

JEFFERSON CITY, MO. (ABP)—A Missouri judge dismissed conspiracy charges June 27 filed by the Missouri Baptist Convention against four Baptist entities, but the convention may appeal the ruling.

Cole County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Brown dismissed conspiracy counts against the Baptist Home, Word & Way, the Missouri Baptist Foundation and Windermere Baptist Conference Center.

The judge dismissed the same counts against Missouri Baptist University on June 12.

The conspiracy charges are part of legal action the convention filed against the five entities in 2002. The convention filed the lawsuit in an attempt to require each agency to rescind changes each made to its corporate charter to elect its own trustees. In the past, messengers to Missouri Baptist Convention annual meetings elected each institution’s board members.

Convention lawyer Michael Whitehead argued that university president Alton Lacey influenced the other agencies’ chief operating officers. The charter changes were “interlocked,” Whitehead said. “Trustees for each entity “voted with the knowledge of what the others were doing.”

Judge Brown responded that the entity heads and trustee chairpersons “did not constitute a majority of any board.”

Whitehead pointed out that three institutions are utilizing the same law firm to represent them in the case and that all five entities have listed concerns about liability as a reason to elect their own trustees.

“It shows they were cooperating together. … It will show a pattern,” Whitehead argued.

In its lawsuit, the convention charges all five institutions with breach of contract. Judge Brown ruled the convention’s legal action does not adequately identify a contract between the convention and the four entities.

The judge ruled the convention must specify which provisions of the Missouri Baptist Convention’s governing documents and the covenants the institutions allegedly have breached. He granted attorneys two weeks in which to file the new document. Restated conspiracy charges could be included in the new petition.

Vicki Brown is associate editor of the Word & Way.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 7/07/06

On the Move

• Carlos Alvarez to Primera Iglesia in Buffalo as pastor.

• Everett Barry to Oak Crest Church in Midlothian as interim pastor.

• Corey Bearden to First Church in San Marcos as minister to students from Park Meadows Church in Waxahachie, where he was youth pastor.

• Richard Boswell to First Church in Sinton as transitional pastor.

• Carlos Charco to Iglesia Emanuel in Hillsboro as pastor.

• Eric Covington to First Church in Milford as music minister.

• Curtis Crofton to First Church in Frankston as interim pastor.

• Joe Dougharty to Dale City Church in Dale City, Va., as pastor of youth and worship coordinator from Lakeview Church in Vidor, where he was pastor.

• Derek Draper has resigned as youth/ education director at First Church in Justin.

• Mark Grace and Linda Wilkerson to Bill Harrod Memorial Church in Dallas as co-pastors.

• Ben Griffin to Grace Temple Church in Waco as minister of music.

• J.D. Hawkins to Mount Pleasant Church in Oakwood as pastor.

• Tom Henderson to Bell Association as director of missions from Heights Church in Temple, where he was pastor.

• Mark Hewitt to Builders Church in Merkel as interim pastor.

• Jim Holloman to Faith Church in Corsicana as pastor.

• Jim Howard to First Church in Matagorda as interim pastor.

• Aaron Hummel to First Church in Stockdale as youth minister.

• Charles Johnson has resigned as pastor of Trinity Church in San Antonio and will serve a one-year appointment as visiting instructor of preaching at Mercer University’s McAfee School of Theology.

• Toby Irwin to Belmore Church in San Angelo as pastor from Hayden Church in Wills Point.

• Blake Lander to Memorial Church in Pasadena as pastor from Council Road Church in Oklahoma City, Okla., where he was minister to young adults.

• John Lawrence to First Church in Mount Calm as pastor.

• Rachel Lopez to First Church in Stockdale as youth ministry assistant.

• Wayne Mahoney has resigned as pastor of First Church in Streetman.

• Cory Mauritzen to Highland Church in Denton as youth minister.

• Herschiel McCarty has completed an interim pastorate at First Church in Ingleside.

• Ron Nolen has resigned as pastor of Ranchhouse Cowboy Church in Maypearl.

• Rick Pearson to First Church in Ingleside as pastor.

• Leigh Ann Powers has resigned as Baptist Student Ministries director at Coastal Bend College in Beeville.

• Bryan Price has completed an interim pastorate at First Church in Winnsboro and is working with Alpine Resort Ministries in Colorado.

• Chris Proctor to Navarro Mills Church in Corsicana as student minister.

• Chris Shirley to Frost Church in Frost as pastor.

• Mike Smith has resigned as pastor of Pawnee Church in Pawnee.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 7/07/06

Single ministers face multiple hurdles

By George Henson

Staff Writer

Churches that point to biblical proof-texts as their basis for excluding women from consideration as pastors may not look to the Bible when they discount single men, as well. But single men have almost as hard a time as women finding ministerial positions—especially as pastors—in Texas Baptist churches, some observers noted.

Student placement staff at Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary and Hardin-Simmons University’s Logsdon Seminary say the lack of a wife can make the search for a place of service difficult.

Werth Mayes, director of student services and resource development at Logsdon, said that while he does not know any student who has married to make himself more marketable, it does enter the mind of some students. And, he noted, some begin to pay more attention to possible matches.

Judy Battles, coordinator for pastoral ministries at Truett, does not believe high anxiety over lack of a wife—and subsequent lack of a pulpit—leads many students into marrying the first person who comes along.

“I think the majority would be smart enough to know that it is not a good reason to get married,” she said. Both said it is apparent that with many search committees: “Single men need not apply.”

While the reasons for the caution could be varied, Mayes said the thing he hears most often from search committees is “they say they feel (marriage) adds more stability” to a minister.

Often, a search committee develops a detailed profile of what they are looking for that includes the prospective pastor’s age, education level and years of experience. Mayes recalled that a colleague told him about one profile that even included the number of children the pastor would have, their ages and the pastor’s height, weight and hair color.

While most profiles are not that in-depth, and most committees say the profiles serve only as guidelines, Mayes believes it is often very difficult—if not impossible—to engender interest in a unmarried candidate, regardless of his other qualifications.

“I’m very honest with those committees,” Mayes said. “I tell them: ‘He’s a wonderful young man, an excellent preacher. I know it is the cultural norm for a pastor to be married, but I think he would do you a very good job.’ Still, most won’t take the chance.”

Even though most committees do not come armed with a profile clearly delineating the prospective pastor’s marital status, that does not mean it is not a factor for them, he said.

“The ones that are not open about it are still very gun-shy,” he said. Many churches short-change themselves by not at least considering an unmarried pastor, Mayes said. He also tells single candidates if a church strongly desires a married pastor, a single pastor probably would not be able to meet their standards anyway, regardless of his abilities.

So, what is a single man who wants to be a single pastor to do?

“They have to just keep praying that some search committee will not have that as a parameter,” Battles said.

Tony Gruben, pastor of Baptist Temple Church in Uvalde, was fortunate enough to find two congregations who felt led to call him as pastor even though he was unmarried.

He was married a few months ago at age 40, and now he knows there are plusses and minuses to being single and a pastor. One positive aspect of being a single pastor is there are less restrictions on time, he said.

“You have a lot more time, because you don’t have a wife or children that you have to be sure to take care of. Because of that, you have a lot more time to be a part of events and projects at the church,” he said.

There are many more positives, however, to being married, he said.

“Being in ministry is often times lonely, and not being married and having someone at home to share things with may have at times exaggerated that. I was fortunate to have family and wonderful associational directors of missions and other friends in ministry to share with, but it was hard not having someone at home I could share with,” he said.

And while Baptist Temple and First Baptist Church in Paint Rock called him as pastor as a single man, other churches plainly told him his marital status was central to not calling him.

“I’ve had pastor-search committees tell me, ‘If only you were married, we would probably call you.’ But I’ve been confident to wait and know in God’s timing he would lead, and he has,” Gruben said. That did not soften the sting, however.

“Any time you are rejected, it’s painful,” he admitted. “Also, I was someone who wanted to be married, but the right person hadn’t come along, and sometimes that pain would come up when I was stymied.”

While he was confident God could use him as a single man, he admits sometimes times were hard.

“Basically, I had told God when I was in college that if he wanted to use me in ministry as a single person, I would do that and be happy in that. Sometimes, I could actually do that, and other days, I couldn’t.”

Like Gruben, other singles manage to find places of service. “I have a lot of single people out serving, so it’s not impossible,” Battles stressed. “But the bias is there.”

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 7/07/06

Lawyers see future in stem-cell research

By Kate Coscarelli

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Since its beginnings, stem-cell research has attracted attention from doctors, politicians and religious activists.

Now that the field is moving from theoretical musings to practical applications, add one more group—lawyers.

From trial lawyers duking it out over attempts to establish stem-cell research institutes in California and Missouri to patent attorneys helping New Jersey scientists protect their discoveries, the legal world increasingly is seeking a piece of the action.

With private industry and public funding dumping millions into stem-cell research, many are already speculating that the dividends for law firms could be huge.

“The future is pretty bright,” said Tom Turano, the co-chairman of the newly formed stem-cell technology practice group at Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Nicholson Graham, which has offices in Newark, N.J. “We are really at the beginning of something here.”

The potential for legal work in the stem-cell field is vast, experts insist. Intellectual property lawyers help make sure discoveries are protected and in position to be developed into marketable products. Venture-capital attorneys build deals. Other lawyers are hired to lobby legislators. Immigration attorneys smooth the way for foreign scientists to work in laboratories here. And experts in insurance law fight over what therapies should be covered.

“Lawyers are vital to getting this off the lab bench,” said Ray Thek of Lowenstein Sandler in Roseland, N.J., who has done stem-cell work for a doctor at Hackensack University Medical Center.

But diving into the specialized field is no small investment, said Joel Henning, a senior vice president of Hildebrandt International, a legal consulting company. That could keep many small firms and even some big ones out of the field.

“At this time, it is pretty exotic,” said Henning, who works in the consultancy’s Chicago office. “It is limited in the number of clients that are going to be into it. (But) more firms will get interested as time goes on.”

The Kirkpatrick firm is one that got interested—fast. It recently created a nine-lawyer group out of its existing staff in an effort to make sure a cross-section of lawyers were keeping up to speed on developments in the field.

“The science moves much faster than the law,” said Turano, who recently helped patent a mutated gene that eventually will help scientists create an affordable diagnostic test to detect a rare connective tissue disease.

“Sometimes, by the time the law gets around to (an issue), nobody cares about it,” he said. “The group was formed specifically for the purpose of trying to stay ahead of the curve.”

Kate Coscarelli writes for The Star Ledger in Newark, N.J.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 7/07/06

Preparation eases jitters
for first-time church campers

By Laura Frase

Communications Intern

With summer in full swing, youth pack their bags for church camp, stuffing their Bible between sunscreen and T-shirts.

Anticipation brings a wide range of emotions among campers. Some are church camp veterans, excited about worship and luaus; others face their first camp experience as anxious as their first day of school.

To avoid camp jitters, Youth Minister Shannon Hopkins at First Baptist Church in Teague calls all the students the week before camp and confirms their plans to attend camp. He also enlists students who attended previous camps to give testimonies at church about their camp experiences.

Otherwise, if this is a student’s first time, “most get nervous and chicken out,” Hopkins said.

Before students leave for camp, Heart of Texas Baptist Camp Director Rhonda O’Banion advises making a list of what to bring and—more importantly—what not to bring.

O’Banion also stresses the importance of arriving with a good attitude and flexibility.

“When they come, they are sharing facilities and space with a lot of people,” she said.

Mount Lebanon Baptist Camp, considered a medium-sized camp, housed more than 1,000 youth for one week’s camp, leaving little room for privacy.

To prepare for camp, Youth Minister Jase Waller at First Baptist Church in Seminole tells students to be well-rested and physically prepared. If students aren’t prepared for camp, it becomes a distraction, he said.

“I think (Satan) uses that against us while we’re at camp,” Waller said. “It’s a distraction to prevent us from hearing what we need to hear.”

Like many church camps, Camp Copass strives to “create an environment conducive to the Holy Spirit working in the kids’ lives,” so it doesn’t allow radios, televisions, cell phones or other distractions, Director Angie Smith said.

“They’re here to be secluded from the world so they can hear the Lord.”

Youth listen to God through worship and prayer. But camp worship isn’t like Sunday morning worship in most churches, unless children jumping up and down, spinning in circles and singing about papayas and God’s love are a Sunday norm.

“Youth should expect to have a lot of fun,” said Stuart Lutz of Zephyr Baptist Encampment.

In the Bible studies, quiet times and worship, camps offer a broad range of activities, from archery to belly-flop contests to zip lines.

Even with all the activities, the primary focus remains on a relationship with God.

At Camp Chaparral, Director Mike Leamon encourages discussing Scripture whenever possible.

“We try to design activities that encourage trust and unity,” he said. The ropes courses at many camps develop trust, unity and relationships among the campers and with God. Courses feature obstacles that only can be completed through teamwork and trust.

Throughout the day, “they should expect some intense time with God,” Leamon added.

O’Banion agrees with the expectations, but also said: “They should expect to meet a lot of new people, to have a good time … to be stretched beyond their comfort zone and to be inspired and changed by the worship experience.”

Hopkins wants to see more one-on-one time with God at camps.

“I expect students to be challenged, not entertained,” Hopkins said. “I want students to be challenged spiritually. I don’t want to just touch the surface.”

While recreation remains balanced with spiritual development, camps continue to reach believers and nonbelievers through activities in a nurturing environment.

“Our goal is to point those (campers) to Christ,” Leamon said. “We share the gospel with the lost, disciple believers and provide good, quality, Christian fun.”

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 7/07/06

Summer Camp High: Follow-up important

By Laura Frase

Communications Intern

With summer church camp professions of faith in Christ soaring to more than 9,000 last year in Texas and rededications hovering at 8,000, some church leaders express concern about a “camp high.”

They question whether youth will stand by their decisions or if their commitments are based on peer pressure and overwhelming emotions.

Rhonda O’Banion of Heart of Texas Baptist Camp and Mike Leamon of Chaparral Baptist Assembly believe it’s a mixture of both.

Campers paint diuring a crafts session.

“I know people personally who have accepted Christ at camp and maintained that relationship, and there are those that base it off emotions,” Leamon said.

While O’Banion agrees, she believes that “sometimes God uses an emotional atmosphere to get their attention.”

Youth Minister Jase Waller from First Baptist Church in Seminole is careful about picking camps for his youth group because some camps play on emotions and some focus on numbers by displaying how many salvations happened at camp on their website, he said. But “there are many camps that do not plan the emotional high,” he added.

At Zephyr Baptist Encampment, Director Stuart Lutz tries to keep camp sincere.

“We push it where it’s not all tears. We want it to be real,” he said. “Our goal isn’t to get every kid at camp down the aisle.”

Youth ministers Waller and Shannon Hopkins of First Baptist Church in Teague agree the key lies in follow-up.

A Mount Lebanon Baptist Encampment staff member offers students advice on how to overcome obstacles during a ropes course activity.

Youth need encouragement at home and are less likely to stand by their decision if they do not receive it, Hopkins said. “That’s how you keep students firm.”

If families are not encouraging or supportive, Hopkins pairs the student with another adult who will push the student to follow up on his or her decision.

Hopkins said the church’s student ministry tries to get new believers plugged in to the church.

Waller agreed, saying “that where we hear God as youth ministers, we need to help prevent spiritual heightening by assisting our students with follow-through and discipleship.”

Lutz is a strong supporter of follow-up as well.

“Five days is just the beginning of what God wants to do with them,” Lutz said.

Many of the camps agree that follow-up is as important as making the decision and are taking the initiative to help churches.

“We try to give churches materials that help with follow-up and stress the importance of following up on a decision made at camp, whether the person is part of the church or a guest of someone with the church,” Leamon said. “They need to stick with these kids and follow up and make sure they get guidance.”

On top of post-camp encouragement, Highland Lakes Camp and Conference Center has a prayer team across Texas designed to pray for new believers.

While “camp high” may be a concern, Highland Lakes Director Danny Dawdy still believes that Christian camping is “one of the greatest evangelism tools we have as Baptists.”

“As we look at the numbers being saved in Baptist camps, we really need to do what we can to support and continue this heritage of Christian camping,” he said.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 7/07/06

Superheroes draw on universal themes

By Lauren Kirk

Special to the Baptist Standard

Dazzling special effects and out-of-this-world action un-doubtedly attract viewers to the big-screen versions of popular superheroes like Superman, Batman and X-Men. But Baylor University English Professor Greg Garrett believes an even more powerful force draws people into these comic book-inspired adventures.

Superhero stories “communicate important truths about the way we live,” Garrett said. “These are powerful stories with larger-than-life characters.”

The characters’ popularity is indisputable. At $103.1 million, X-Men: The Last Stand ranked the third-highest grossing film over a three-day start of any film in history and reached $120 million over its four-day opening.

Last summer’s Batman Begins topped the $200 million mark less than two months after its release.

And Superman Returns, which hit theaters June 28, promises to be the blockbuster hit of this summer, vaulting to first place at the box office faster than a speeding bullet.

These movies—and the superhuman characters they feature—touch on universal themes, Garrett insists. He has written several books about the spiritual dimension of movies and comic books. The Gospel Reloaded, which he wrote with Chris Seay, compares the Matrix characters to comic book characters and to biblical themes. Holy Superheroes explores what superheroes can teach about spirituality and faith.

And his upcoming book, The Gospel According to Hollywood, looks at underlying religious meaning in popular films.

“I was drawn to the stories. I wanted to make connections between the stories that are important to me and to Christians and the stories that I love in popular culture,” Garrett said.

X-Men, for instance, focuses on themes of tolerance and prejudice, he noted. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in the early 1960s, the stories about oppressed mutants paralleled struggles in the Civil Rights movement.

Batman—the caped crusader who committed his life to fighting crime after his parents’ murder—touches on life and death issues with which everyone can identify, he observed.

“We all face loss in our lives. We all wonder what we’re supposed to be doing with our lives,” Garrett said.

The familiar story of Superman—sent to earth by his father, endowed with special powers and committed to saving humankind from the forces of evil—closely parallels the Jewish belief that the Messiah will come to save the world and draws on Christian beliefs about Jesus as the Messiah, Garrett noted.

“The approach that Jesus takes in the Gospel of Mark, going around doing good deeds, is similar to what Superman does,” he said. “If there is a problem and somebody needs help, he steps in and does something about it to save the day.”

Garrett thinks Christians can use the themes in comic book stories and the movies inspired by them to witness to nonbelievers interested in these stories but not in Christianity.

He suggests Christians do this by finding connections between the comic book stories and their own stories of faith and then sharing these stories with others.

“We need to recognize that we are all spiritual beings,” he said. Not everyone accepts organized religion, but “almost everyone responds to powerful, spiritual stories in our culture.”

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 7/07/06

Texas Tidbits

Baylor Social Work receives $1.1 million grant. The Baylor University School of Social Work’s Center for Family and Community Ministries was awarded a $1.1 million grant from the Christ Is Our Salvation private foundation, to be administered over the next three years. The grant to strengthen congregational community ministries will focus on educating future community ministry leaders for churches; preparing leaders through internships; producing community ministry resources and training for churches; and publishing a quarterly journal as a resource for church leaders. As part of the grant proposal, the center will name Gaynor Yancey, associate dean for baccalaureate studies in the School of Social Work, as associate professor of church and community.

Wayland names alumni development director. Danny Andrews, longtime editor of the Plainview Daily Herald, has been named director of alumni development for Wayland Baptist University. He succeeds Joe Provence, who has served as the university’s alumni director since 1985. Andrews, who graduated from Wayland in 1972, began working at the Herald as a sports writer in 1967. He took the position of sports editor in 1970 and was promoted to editor in 1978. In his new position, Andrews will be responsible for fundraising efforts among Wayland alumni, including the annual fund and endowment campaigns. He also will plan all the homecoming events and activities and oversee the alumni publication, Footprints. Andrews’ wife, Carolyn, is administrative assistant to Wayland President Paul Armes. The Andrewses have three children—Brandon, of Tampa, Fla., Kayla of Carrollton and Brad of Lubbock.

Missions service award deadline set. The nomination deadline for the 2006 Texas Baptist Missions Foundation Mission Service awards is Aug. 4. The awards, presented by the Texas Baptist Missions Foundation Council, include the Pioneer Award for service in missions, the Innovator Award for creativity in missions and the Adventurer Award for leadership in missions. The awards will be presented at the Texas Baptist Missions Foundation luncheon Nov. 13 at the Baptist General Conven-tion of Texas annual meeting in Dallas. Nomina-tions may be submitted in writing to Bill Arnold at the Texas Baptist Missions Foundation, 333 North Washington, Dallas 75246 or via e-mail to Bill.Arnold@bgct.org.

Sadler named interim religion chair at Wayland. Religion professor Paul Sadler has been named interim chairman of Wayland Baptist University’s religion and philosophy division. Fred Meeks, who has led the division since 1992, retires Aug. 31. Sadler, who joined the Wayland faculty in 1990, assumed duties as interim chair July 1, allowing for overlap during the time of transition. Sadler holds a bachelor’s degree and a doctorate from Baylor University and master of divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He served as pastor of Park Lake Drive Baptist Church, Bosqueville Baptist Church and Meadow-brook Baptist Church, all in Waco, from 1970 to 1990 before joining the Wayland faculty.

UMHB names dean. The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor has named Derek Davis, former director of the J.M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies at Baylor University, founding dean of its new College of Humanities. Formerly, all departments under sciences and humanities at UMHB were combined in one college, the College of Science and Humanities. The College of Humanities includes the departments of English, modern foreign languages, history/political science and communication/media studies. Davis also will serve as the interim dean of graduate programs and research—also a new position at UMHB. Davis holds bachelor's, master’s and law degrees from Baylor University and a doctorate from the University of Texas at Dallas. He is the author or editor of 16 books on religious liberty and related topics.

Convencion calls for immigration reform. The Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas joined the call for comprehensive immigration reform, unanimously approving a resolution that urges lawmakers to pass legislation to protect the country’s borders, provide avenues for undocumented workers to become citizens and allow compassionate ministry.

Baylor cancer program commended. The American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer granted approval with commendation to the cancer program at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas. Only one in four hospitals that treat cancer receives this special approval, according to the commission. Programs approved by the commission provide quality care close to home; comprehensive care offering a range of state-of-the-art services and equipment; a multi-specialty team approach to coordinate the best treatment options available to cancer patients; access to cancer-related information, education and support; a cancer registry that collects data on type and stage of cancers and treatment results; lifelong patient follow-up; ongoing monitoring and improvement of care; and information about ongoing clinical trials and new treatment options. To maintain approval, facilities with commission-approved cancer programs must undergo an on-site review every three years.

Scholarships endowed at Hardin-Simmons. John and Sharon Hyde recently established the Richard C.C. Kim endowed scholarship at Hardin-Simmons University. Kim was professor and head of the political science department at Hardin-Simmons when Hyde—a district court judge from Midland—was a student in the early 1960s. The scholarship is available to any undergraduate student or students who have completed 30 hours or more of college credit and have a grade point average of 2.5 or higher. The family of Kenneth Lambert, former assistant comptroller at Hardin-Simmons, established an endowed scholarship in his memory. The scholarship will benefit students pursuing a teaching certification in the Irvin School of Education.

United Way honors TBM, BCFS. The United Way recently recognized Texas Baptist Men and Baptist Child & Family Services as the top faith-based volunteer organizations ministering in San Antonio in 2005. Both organizations served people who fled to San Antonio when hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck the Gulf Coast last fall. Baptist Child & Family Services cared for more than 1,700 special-needs evacuees and their families in 12 shelters. In six weeks, volunteers served more than 18,500 hours. More than 900 workers came from around the nation to serve alongside the 120 Baptist agency employees who led the ministry. Texas Baptist Men disaster relief volunteers prepared about 650,000 meals for hurricane evacuees staying at 22 shelters across San Antonio. Volunteers worked more than 30,000 hours in helping evacuees.

Honors program established at Hardin-Simmons. Hardin-Simmons University has established an endowed honors program, established by a bequest from R.M. Hardwick. Earnings from this endowment will be used to support the Hardin-Simmons University honors program through scholarship and program support.

Justice Department awards Baylor center $2.9 million grant. Baylor University’s Center for Religious Inquiry Across Disciplines has received a $2,975,035 grant from the Justice Department’s Office on Violence Against Women. It will fund the Faith and Community Technical Support program, which will provide support for small, rural, faith-based and/or community-based programs that provide services for victims of domestic violence, and it will provide technical assistance to organizations receiving funds. This is one of the first grants given by the Office on Violence Against Women that will provide funds to faith-based organizations.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 7/07/06

TOGETHER:
BGCT: Working separately & together

Have you ever watched three or four friends build something on a free Saturday? If they’re smart, they start early, divvy up the work in a way that best suits their talents and go to work. They don’t all do the same thing at the same time. They work both separately and together; and, in the end, if they’ve worked well, they build something that will last.

Baptists are like those building friends. We come together, divvy up the work and go at it. Churches and conventions work both separately and together; and, in the end, we’ve built something special. Of course, we know that it is God building through us, but we surely are part of the work (1 Corinthians 3:9).

Executive Director BGCT Executive Board

The Baptist General Convention of Texas helps churches in a unified project of kingdom building; but churches are the most important element. Together, we’re like those building friends. We’ve got a job to do, and it sure helps to have friends helping. It makes the effort more enjoyable, and you get a lot more done.

Many people today just do not grasp how Baptists work. It’s hard for them to understand that churches, the BGCT, and other Baptist bodies can all be autonomous and yet work together—having a kingdom goal and working cooperatively.

When we see friends working on weekend building projects, we know each one of them is an autonomous individual who will make his own decisions. But we also know those friends cooperate, or they will not get as much done. Before they came together to work that morning, each got out of bed in his own house, and at the end of the day, will return there. They have their own individual lives, but they choose to do some things together because it’s enjoyable and productive.

That’s what Baptist groups are like. Each is autonomous, but we choose to come together and work because it’s a joy and it’s productive.

The BGCT, national bodies and regional associations do not tell churches what to do, nor do they tell each other what to do. They’re autonomous, but they cooperate where they can.

Disagreements that have divided Baptists in recent years have had some particularly grievous consequences in harming cooperation and trust, but our polity of autonomy still enables us to move forward in kingdom work. Baptists, despite our struggles, still are seeking to reach people for Christ through missions and evangelism; we’re still trying to disciple the saved; and we’re still trying to meet the needs of a hurting world.

At the national level, the BGCT is not joined at the hip with either the Southern Baptist Convention or the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. The BGCT makes its own decisions in seeking to best serve the churches of Texas and the needs of the world. But we also know we are not alone. That’s why we cooperate where we can with each group; and where we can’t, we go our own way, the way that Texas Baptists say they want to go together.

The Baptist churches of Texas work together through the BGCT on the same eternal project. We work as friends, but we don’t all do the same thing all of the time. It’s the Baptist way, and it’s a very effective way.

We are loved.

Charles Wade is executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 7/07/06

CYBER COLUMN:
Workover

By Berry Simpson

When I opened my mail I found an ID, card and an invitation to join AARP, the American Association of Retired Persons.

So, it’s finally come to that.

Not that this was a big surprise. I know how old I almost am, and I know AARP keeps track of people like me and would eventually find me. And besides, maybe I’ll even join their club, since I hear they have good discounts. I wonder if they have accounts with New Balance or REI? That would be a real asset.

The thing is, I never expected to feel like a newbie in my AARP years. I thought I’d be more settled in by now—doing things that were familiar to me.

The day I received the invitation to join AARP, I was working on several last-minute details for an oil well workover near Tatum, N.M. As I worked on the project timeline and tried to arrange all my equipment, I kept uncovering more things I should’ve remembered but apparently forgot. It feels like I’m starting over as a production engineer. I used to do a lot of this sort of thing, but it’s been 10 years since my last hands-on workover.

I used to enjoy sitting on workovers. I found that focusing on one single project was relaxing. The isolation was relaxing as well. But in the past years, I think, I’ve lost my grip on field work and wellsite work, and now I find it tedious and draining rather than focusing and energizing. Maybe I’ll grow back into it.

Well, two days later, while sitting on location and watching the pulling-unit crew run tubing, I was reading a book by Calvin Miller Into the Depths of God. Miller observes: “It is amazing that we take our individual schedules so seriously that we never wonder if God has anything else for us to do.”

It occurred to me that maybe I needed more unplanned, even forced, intrusions into my tightly scheduled life to remind me to listen to God and rely on other people who want to help me. When my schedule clicks along the way I planned it, I don’t need help from anyone. I can handle everything myself.

Is that a good way to find God?

So, the first night in the drilling trailer—the company I’m working with also is drilling an oil well in the same field and has a trailer on the drill site where I could spend the night instead of driving three hours home every night and three hours back to the well each morning—I prayed: “Lord, come to me in this workover; speak to my insecurities; speak to my loneliness; speak to my frustrations; speak to my fears of doing the wrong things; speak to my fears of being able to pay all my drilling and workover bills this summer.” It’s a new thing for me to pray and ask God to speak to me through a situation rather than praying for God to calm me or lessen the stress.

Miller writes: “We cringe when we think of letting other people gain control of our lives. Yet the time when we best develop character is when we are no longer in charge of our circumstances.” That cringing Miller writes about came from me. I like controlling my own schedule, and I don’t like having someone else control me. And I don’t like having situations control me, either.

So, maybe Miller was speaking to my situation here on this workover. Sitting on this well is certainly not something I’d have chosen for myself at this time. And even though I am technically the wellsite supervisor here, it doesn’t feel like I’m in charge at all. It feels more like the well itself is in charge. It feels like the earth is making all the decisions, and all I can do is respond. And when I do get to be in charge and make decisions, it feels like I’m in over my head and making expensive decisions based on little experience and limited insight. Maybe the problem isn’t that well work is so tedious, but that it is so unpredictable.

Sitting in my pickup trying to escape the 100-degree heat, I wonder: Is this more about finding God than about relearning old skills? I think so. I think if finding God is a priority, then everything we do becomes a portal. Especially things that make us uncomfortable, things that intrude on our schedule, things that make us feel vulnerable and at risk.

If we pay attention, it all points toward God.

Berry Simpson, a Sunday school teacher at First Baptist Church in Midland, is a petroleum engineer, writer, runner and member of the city council in Midland. You can contact him through e-mail at berry@stonefoot.org.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 7/07/06

RIGHT OR WRONG?
Ordaining divorced deacons

“I've heard about churches that are ordaining divorced and remarried men as deacons. What does the Bible say about the qualifications of deacons and marriage?”

The qualifications for deacons are found in Acts 6:1-6 and 1 Timothy 3:8-13. The Acts passage reports the launch of deacon ministry. It describes how the early church commissioned seven men to attend to the daily needs of the congregation while the apostles devoted their time to teaching the gospel. The 1 Timothy passage lists lifestyle and character traits given to Timothy as he tried to organize the church at Ephesus.

Taken literally, the 1 Timothy passage renders most everyone ineligible to serve as a deacon. Just as the Apostle Paul describes character traits for the pastorate that render all of us unqualified to stand in the pulpit

(1 Timothy 3:1-7), deacons read 1 Timothy 3:8-13 and lament, “I am not worthy.” Grace takes priority over standards.

Honest servants recognize that on one level or many, they are not blameless. Families are not perfect. Everyone has a past. And the list could go on. To evaluate these obvious inadequacies, each church also looks to the proven personal Christian character of the nominee. Except in the case of divorce. For some reason, this past failure carries a lasting visible stain. Oddly, we have been able to accept the claim of a young drunkard or drug addict, “The Lord saved me and called me to the ministry.” Yet the person whose marriage fell apart when he was 23 years old still struggles to find redemption at 55.

The tension lies in the admonition in 1 Timothy 3:12, “Let deacons be married only once” (NRSV) or “Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife” (KJV). Is Paul speaking to divorce, a common occurrence in Corinth? Or is Paul speaking to polygamy, another common occurrence in Corinth? Each is an acceptable interpretation, and each has an acceptable application.

The burden in selecting deacons lies in Paul’s admonition in 1 Timothy 3:10: “… let them first be tested.” The qualities an autonomous Baptist church would seek in a deacon are discerned over a long period. Be wary of the church that ordains the newcomer or the troublemaker. If a person was married and divorced many years ago and yet that person has since proven to be exemplary in Christian character, their family is in good order, and they are respected within the local church, why not give them equal consideration to those who have not faced divorce?

I have served two Texas Baptist churches. The first ordained as a deacon a fine man who had experienced the pain of divorce in his youth and had since put his life together with a wonderful woman. This act of grace took place years before I arrived in Matador. E.A. Day is one of the most influential people in my life. The divorce of his youth gave him wisdom and humility for service. I cherish his memory and the church that trusted him.

In my second and current church, the members of our congregation rose up during the nomination process and said, “We trust these two men!” The deacons and the church reconsidered the issue and chose overwhelmingly to ordain these men who had faced divorce in the distant past. Both churches are better for it. Grace and proven character should speak louder than previous mistakes.

It has the ring of gospel in my ears. What about yours?

Stacy Conner, pastor

First Baptist Church

Muleshoe

Right or Wrong? is sponsored by the T.B. Maston Chair of Christian Ethics at Hardin-Simmons University’s Logsdon School of Theology. Send your questions about how to apply your faith to btillman@hsutx.edu.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.