Posted: 6/01/06

Ring of Champions saving
children's future through mentoring

By Laura Frase

Communications Intern

DUNCANVILLE—When Carless Talton talks with young offenders in juvenile detention centers, they recognize she speaks with the authority of firsthand knowledge.

Talton relates her personal experiences as a former drug addict and prostitute and tells them about her rebirth as a Christian. Now she serves as regional director for Ring of Champions, a program sponsored by Bill Glass Champions for Life Ministries.

Talton was introduced to Christ in 1989 after she was arrested for drug possession and then admitted to a hospital to treat gangrene in her leg. At the hospital, a nurse told her how much Jesus loved her and about his desire for her to have a better life.

At that point, Talton said, her attitude was, “I don’t get into God’s business, and he don’t get into mine.”

After another arrest, a judge gave Talton a final chance to clean up, sentencing her to 10 years probation and admitting her into a rehabilitation center.

During the process, Talton promised God she would serve him if he helped her out, but soon forgot about it, she said. That was until she passed through an area in East Dallas where she used to turn tricks as a prostitute and saw a sign for a Bible college. Talton wanted to attend college and serve God, but she was afraid they wouldn’t accept an ex-con.

To her surprise, she said, “they were all excited that God sent me here.”

Talton didn’t forget her promise to God and gave her testimony at a church one morning. That testimony made an impact on Jim Lang, then vice president of prison ministries for Bill Glass Ministries. He immediately asked her to be a platform speaker at Champions for Life events, and she has been with the organization ever since.

Talton reaches out to young people with “I’ve been there” stories, making it easier to build their trust. Ring of Champions needs volunteers like Talton—or anyone who is willing to help save a child’s future by becoming a mentor, she said.

Mentors commit to 12 weeks with a child, spending one hour a week with them. In the first three to four weeks, the young people are testing the mentor to see if he or she will stick around, Talton said, and it takes about two months to form a relationship. Twelve weeks is the minimum requirement, but mentors may continue with the juvenile as long as they like.

Most mentors decide they want to do it for the rest of their life after their first experience, said Louis Korom, communications coordinator of Bill Glass Ministries.

Talton wishes a group like this had touched her life when she was struggling.

When she was on the streets of East Dallas, she encountered Christians who preached the gospel to people in need. But afterward, they would leave the people to whom they witnessed on the street, confused and not knowing what to do, she said.

“When we leave, we give our contact information and leave teammates in the area that can help,” she added.

Unfortunately, hundreds of children are left without a mentor, she continued.

“We are always getting new kids, and the crime rate for kids is escalating,” Talton said.

Diane Perkins, chair of the board of Dallas/Fort Worth Ring of Champions, was fearful before her first youth prison facility experience.

“I was nervous about going, and after I went, I said I would never go back again,” she said. She described the young people as hard and their faces blank.

“But I watched Carless grow through her experiences, and I felt God’s call. This fall, I will be a mentor for kids,” she said.

Finding volunteers to mentor troubled children is difficult, Talton said.

“Nobody wants to step up, because there is no glory in what we do,” she said. “We’re just trying to keep kids from spending 20 years on the streets like I did.”

Korom believes people choose not to volunteer because “they think they don’t relate to that particular background, if they’ve grown up as a Christian all their life. Just showing up is all youth want.”

Champions for Life Founder Bill Glass agreed volunteers seldom are assigned children who are a perfect fit for them.

“The most unlikely people are totally effective with them,” Glass said.

The foundation continues to look for help in any way possible.

“As a ministry, we are looking for partnering churches, so when we open a new unit or have new kids, we are going to need more mentors, and we need somewhere to turn where they are prepared,” said George Huey, director of evangelism at Bill Glass Champions for Life. “We need lots of prayers.”

Perkins insists hundreds of children in the United States need mentors, but churches focus on sending missionaries to other countries.

“We need to look right here. We don’t have to go to a foreign country, and you don’t need a visa to be a mentor,” she said. “We just need people to share the love of Jesus to those who have never known that love. Just mentor a child.”

Glass believes Ring of Champions has been a success since its start in 2000, but the program needs more volunteers.

“We give them the Lord, substitute fathers, counseling and mentoring,” he said.

Ring of Champions is growing nationwide, and volunteers are needed in all areas.

“The most important thing we can give them is hope,” Talton said.

The lack of volunteers affects future generations everywhere, Perkins added.

“The Lord has shown me we have to invest in these kids. They are our future,” she said.

For more information on volunteering as a mentor, contact Carless Talton at (972) 298-1101, ext. 305.

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: 6/01/06

Baptisms by Ruben Rios (left) will help fill the new sanctuary of Iglesia Hispana in Gatesville.

Gatesville church helps Hispanic
congregation move to new building

By Elizabeth Staples  

Communications Intern

GATESVILLE—Live Oak Baptist Church focuses on family. And in recent years, the family has expanded.

About three years ago, a group of Hispanics in the area joined several people at Live Oak Baptist Church and proposed to start a new Hispanic church. After meeting on their own for a few months, they were led to a 71-year-old retired pastor, Ruben Rios. He quickly joined in their vision and became the pastor of the new Hispanic congregation, now called Iglesia Hispana.

Rios led Bible studies nearly every night, teaching and praying with the group. The group grew so large during the next year, the church moved into the old sanctuary of Live Oak Baptist Church.

Live Oak Baptist Church joined with Iglesia Hispana to start more Bible studies, English-as-a-Second-Language classes and a night of worship, games and preaching for youth and children on Friday nights.

“To me as a pastor, it’s not about programs and plans but about being available to the community and to the Lord,” said David Diggs, pastor of Live Oak Baptist Church.

Live Oak Baptist Church gave $50,000 to Iglesia Hispana to buy three acres of land, and Habitat for Humanity helped build a parsonage for Rios and his wife.

 “Our church doesn’t have a mind set at all of (Iglesia Hispana) being a mission,” Diggs said. “We look at it as just another church, and we’re just helping our brothers and sisters get started.”

After three years of raising money, Iglesia Hispana has raised almost enough money to finish its own facilities. The generosity of members from Live Oak Baptist Church and Iglesia Hispana has provided enough money to begin the construction of the new church.

Three weeks ago, Iglesia Hispana held its first Bible study in the frame of the church’s new building.

“They were so excited to finally have their own building they just couldn’t wait to meet in it,” Diggs said.

Iglesia Hispana currently has about 25 members, including three families who recently joined, and church leaders expect the congregation to grow rapidly.

“We are missionaries who have united our dream with the dream of Live Oak Baptist Church to become one dream, and a church came out of that,” Rios said.

Primera Iglesia Bautista in Alice will send a group of their youth July 17-22 to work alongside the youth at Live Oak Baptist Church and offer Vacation Bible School for the children of Iglesia Hispana.

“It’s amazing how God works in ways we never dreamed,” said Diggs. “We’re here to reach Gatesville and everyone in our community and then reach out to the rest of the world. Our motto is: ‘Live Oak Baptist Church—The Family You’ve Been Waiting for.’”

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: 6/01/06

Willow Meadows youth want
'art car' to be message of hope

By Karen Campbell

Union Baptist Association

HOUSTON—Take a late 1980s mud-racing Buick, add the exuberance of youth and the perspective of Katrina evacuees, plus a little paint and creativity with a touch of faith-based hope and an Art Car is born.

This year’s recent Everyone’s Art Car Parade featured the usual array of lowriders, classic cars, and what can only be termed “rolling contraptions” among the more than 250 entries in an annual event that attracts more than 200,000 spectators.

Katrina evacuee Autumn Luers-Pereira and Joma Kennedy from Willow Meadows Baptist Church work on an ArtCar. Matt Peters is in the distant background.

The lineup also included a combined project of Willow Meadows Baptist youth and Katrina evacuees, illustrating vividly that “expressions of faith” can take many forms.

Susan Brock, who has worked with the church youth art team for the last three years and served as co-director for the Katrina shelter/relief efforts at Willow Meadows, first saw a potential link between the previously planned parade entry and the need to address a growing negative public reaction to Katrina evacuees.

“I know that once the crisis mode finished, there was a lot of unrest in me, and it helped to talk to other people about it, and I know that it’s provided a piece of that for the kids. If they can get a grip on what they just came through and get some positive message about it … that’s what we hope the car can do,” Brock explained.

During the months the youth from New Orleans and Houston have worked on their own testament to unity, they were peppered with reports of Katrina evacuees tied to various acts of violence and school disturbances.

Kristen Johnson from Willow Meadows Baptist Church in Houston puts some creativity into the project.

The Houston Chronicle reported a study by Rice University sociologist Stephen Klineberg that revealed Houston residents have grown “increasingly weary and wary of the 150,000 Louisiana evacuees” who settled in Harris County. Three-fourths of the Houston-area residents surveyed said the influx of Katrina evacuees has put a considerable strain on the Houston community, and two-thirds said evacuees bear responsibility for a major increase in violent crime. Many said Houston will be “worse off” rather than “better off” if most evacuees remain here permanently.

Willow Meadows believes there is another, relatively untold story, and the Art Car makes for a vivid illustration in the unfolding tale.

“The only requirement we had was that it be completed on time, that it deal with Katrina, and it had to have Christian message,” Brock said.

The youth determined Mardi Gras colors would be a key element to the car, as well as a depiction of rising waters and an interactive element that has allowed the creators to offer up life lessons on the chalkboard-like sides.

“We wanted to engage people with not just art they look at but art that involves them on a deeper level,” Brock said of the invitation to respond which will be offered to the crowd during the parade’s weekend festivities.

With New Orleans youth concentrating on one side of the car and Willow Meadows youth addressing the other, the roof is where the two communities came together in what is intended to be a message of hope.

Ross Childs and Victor Sanchez from Willow Meadows Baptist Church in Houston take a break from decorating their Art Car.

“The experience of the car, working on it, interacting with it, is kind of a therapy and more important than the artistic expression. The experience is the goal—not the final project,” Brock concluded.

Willow Meadows has no plans to keep the car, and Brock hints it may return to mud racing and continue to tell the Katrina story.

“One of the lessons that has already been written on the car is that it’s the people you know, not the stuff, that matters,” he said. “So, by not keeping the car, we’re not holding on to it. We’re letting go.”

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: 6/01/06

Wayland band members
amazed by reception in Russia

By Jonathan Petty

Wayland Baptist University

MOSCOW—Wayland Baptist University’s Pioneer Band recently traveled to Russia, performing indoor and outdoor concerts in conjunction with the country’s Victory Day celebrations.

The band spent four days in Moscow and four in St. Petersburg, performing in three of Europe’s top concert halls—the Moscow Conservatory, Tchaikovsky Conservatory and the A Capella Concert Hall in St. Petersburg.

The band’s packed schedule found them in Gorky Park on May 9, Russia’s Victory Day, celebrating the end of the World War II.

Wayland Baptist University band director Tim Kelley points out the Wayland band listing near the top of a program poster outside of the Moscow Conservatory.

“We were the group that performed on either side of the minute of silence that they observe,” Wayland band director Tim Kelley said. “For a group from America to be the group that was there to share that with them was incredible.”

While students enjoyed the outdoor performances, Kelley said the indoor concerts were unforgettable—playing in venues specifically designed for concert bands for audiences comprised of the nation’s intellectual elite.

But it was the sound that most impressed the group.

“The acoustics in the Moscow Conservatory—when you play those first few notes, you’re thinking ‘I don’t know what happened, but we have all just died and gone to heaven,’” Kelley said.

At the Moscow Conservatory, the band premiered Victory Day for Symphonic Band, which Gary Belshaw, assistant professor of music at Wayland, composed specifically for the trip.

“As soon as the piece was done and I recognized him and the crowd realized the composer was in the audience with them, everybody was on their feet clapping,” Kelley said. “They were so appreciative.”

The band students had a newfound appreciation for Belshaw’s work after playing it in that setting.

“To a lot of people, when we were practicing it and playing it here, it didn’t make a lot of sense. I heard a lot of students say we just didn’t really get it,” said Jared McCarthick, a senior music education major from Lovington, N.M. “But once we got over there and played it in that setting, I got it. It made sense. It was unreal, and the crowd just loved it.”

Wayland Baptist University band students saw ornate architecture, such as the golden copulas on this cathedral within the Kremlin walls, throughout their eight days in Russia.

Back in the Wayland band hall, Kelley reflected on the whirlwind trip.

“It’s not until you’ve taken a trip like this that you realize how important and how meaningful it is,” he said. “The Minister of Culture traveled with us while we were in Moscow. They had world leaders from 40 or 50 countries at that thing, and security in the central part of the city where all these events were held was intense.

“To have someone sitting on the bus with you and you pull up to a barricade and he just shows his face and waves his hand and the barricade opens and they let us through … When it’s that kind of person who is traveling with you, all of a sudden you realize how important this really is to the Russian people. They had their highest-ranking government official in the area traveling with us to give us the passage that we needed.

“This was beyond anything we could have imagined beforehand, and we have a lot of imagination around here.”

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: 5/31/06

How to help in Indonesia

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

Baptists worldwide responded to the needs of Indonesians affected by a May 27 earthquake that killed more than 5,500 people.

The Baptist World Alliance dispatched its Rescue24 medical team to meet needs in a region where hospitals are overcrowded.

WorldconneX, a missions network launched by the Baptist General Convention of Texas, is exploring ways to meet needs in the area. For more information on WorldconneX's ministry there, visit www.worldconnex.org/indonesianearthquake.html.

Milfred Minatrea, who leads BGCT disaster response efforts, encouraged Texas Baptists to pray for Indonesia and for those ministering in the affected region.

“In every crisis situation, wherever tragedy occurs, the Body of Christ is present to provide compassionate relief,” he said.

“As part of the global body of Baptists, the Baptist General Convention of Texas is always on call in these situations. While immediate response has come from members of the Baptist family who are located much closer to Indonesia, we are providing financial resources to enable our brothers and sisters who are on the scene to minister effectively. We are also awaiting word of direct relief and response assistance that Texas Baptists may be invited to provide.

“At this time, we ask two things of our Texas Baptist family. First, please pray for those in the Body of Christ who are directly impacted by the devastation and for those who are coming along side them to offer relief ministries. Second, please make a sacrificial gift to BGCT disaster response to enable our effective ministry and provision of resources to care for those for who are victims of this tragic experience. Together, we can do more, in good times and bad, to share and show his love.”

To give through the BGCT to support disaster response, mail a check designated “BGCT Disaster Response” to BGCT, 333 N. Washington Ave., Dallas 75246. 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: 5/30/06

Baptist World Aid sends team to Indonesia

By Staff

Texas Baptist Communications

FALLS CHURCH, Va. —Baptist World Aid May has sent its Rescue 24 team of first responders to serve in the wake of an Indonesian earthquake that killed nearly 5,000 people May 27.

The relief arm of the Baptist World Alliance directed a Hungarian Baptist Aid medical team to Yogyakarta, Indonesia, from its post-tsunami ministry in Nias. Another medical team will be there soon. The organization also designated $20,000 for the relief effort.

The relief team is working in conjunction with indigenous Baptist groups who also are responding in an area not far from the region affected by 2004's South Asia tsunami. These first responders will help find ways other Baptist groups can join the relief effort.

According to incomplete reports, the 6.3-magnitude earthquake killed about 5,000 people and injured more than 2,000 others. About 1,700 sustained minor injuries. Hospitals quickly were overrun by the surge in demand for services.

"It is great to see the way in which Indonesian Baptists have responded so quickly to this tragedy," Baptist World Aid Director Paul Montacute said. "The worldwide family of Baptists now needs to give generously to support the continuing relief efforts."

Financial donations to this response can be sent to Baptist World Aid, Baptist World Alliance, 405 N. Washington Street, Falls Church, VA, 22046.
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: 5/26/06

Former foster child finds
fulfillment as foster mother

By Miranda Bradley

Children at Heart Ministries

CEDAR PARK—Between running her own in-home daycare and caring for her family, Katina Duprey has a full schedule—so full it makes some people wonder why she would take on extra responsibilities as foster mother to needy children. But Duprey knows exactly why she does it.

“I spent a good deal of my life in foster care,” she said. “Most of my experiences were bad, but one family totally changed my life for the better.”

Duprey entered foster care when she was 13 months old, only to be sexually abused by her first foster family. After she was removed from their care, another foster family also abused her.

“It was very hard on me,” she said. “But then I spent one week with a foster family that was a great experience.”

When she arrived at the family’s home, Duprey admits, she was skeptical. After suffering previously at the hands of people who were supposed to care for her, she withdrew from her new guardians, expecting the worst.

“Instead, they just gave me space and time,” she said. “They didn’t push themselves on me. They just loved me, and that made all the difference.”

For years, she yearned to be a foster parent who could provide stability and security to children who need it most.

“Once I saw you could have a positive influence on children, I wanted to do it,” she said.

She served as a foster parent with Child Protective Services, but Duprey discovered she needed spiritual support. That’s when Dawson Clark, a fellow member at New Hope First Baptist Church in Cedar Park, introduced her to STARRY, a Children at Heart Ministries program that provides services to children and families through its emergency shelter, community-based counseling and foster care programs.

Clark, development director for STARRY, explained the ministry had expanded its foster care program to meet a growing demand for temporary in-home placement, and the ministry was seeking Christian foster parents.

“I found that the Christian aspect of the program makes a huge difference in our foster care experience,” Duprey said.

So far, Duprey has fostered two infants. Her most recent charge is just 3 months old. A baby, coupled with her own 2-year-old son and her thriving daycare business makes life interesting, she said.

Juggling all she has to handle requires the kind of Christian advocacy she said she finds at STARRY.

“The staff and I pray together,” Duprey said. “Stacy Grant (foster care coordinator for STARRY) holds me accountable in a Christian way. I never feel attacked or judged.”

Grant praises Duprey, saying: “She really has a heart for the kids and a strong desire to keep them safe. She’s an ideal foster parent for our program.”

In spite of her past, Duprey harbors no anger toward parents of abused or neglected children—one reason many children are placed in foster care.

“I try not to judge,” Duprey said. “Being a mom myself, I can understand how stressful it can be. Everyone makes bad choices that affect more than just themselves.”

Once a child is in Duprey’s home, the lines of separation are blurred. Despite the title, the word “foster” soon is eliminated from any reference to anyone in the household. No one here is a former, current or future foster anything. In their house, only one word applies—family.

“These babies are part of our family,” Duprey said. “Whatever they’ve been through, it doesn’t matter. This is their home. And it will be as long as they need it.”

For more information on foster care, contact Stacy Grant at (512) 246-4229. For other inquiries, contact STARRY directly at (512) 246-4290 or log on to www.starryonline.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: 5/26/06

Sexual purity song still
inspires youth after five years

By Erin Roach

Baptist Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)—Sexual purity has long been important to singer-songwriter Rebecca St. James, and at the fifth anniversary of the release of her signature single Wait for Me, she continues to show young people worldwide how to wait honorably for the spouse God may have for them.

The song, written by St. James as a pledge of commitment to her future husband, has inspired thousands of teenagers worldwide to remain sexually abstinent until marriage.

“I think deep down, young people do know that waiting is the right way to go, and they just want encouragement to wait,” she said. “I think for a lot of girls that heard it, Wait for Me became kind of their song that they were singing to their future husbands that encouraged them to be strong. I also think we girls are such romantics at heart, and it’s a song that is romantic but also pure. I think that’s why it connected.”

Richard Ross, co-founder of the True Love Waits sexual purity movement, said the song has played a large role in the success of the program.

“Wait for Me has been one of those pillar songs for True Love Waits. Both the words of the song and the purity of the artist behind it have carried great weight with Christian teenagers,” Ross said. “We know from the Reformation and the Great Awakenings that music fuels movements. Rebecca’s Wait for Me would be an example of that phenomena in our day.”

St. James said she first made a decision about purity at a True Love Waits rally in Peoria, Ill., when she was 16 years old and just starting out in the music industry.

“I saw a couple hundred other young people taking a stand for God, and I was so inspired by that but also really felt challenged to make that commitment myself,” she recounted.

“I had grown up in a Christian family, and I knew that was the right way to go, but I also knew that there was a lot of pressure on us as young people today to compromise in that area. So, I wanted to make a commitment that really would help me to stand strong.”

Sometime after that rally, her father gave her a purity ring during a ceremony the family held at home. She still wears the ring to remind her of the commitment she made.

As she progressed in her music career and became a popular figure at youth rallies and True Love Waits events, she began speaking publicly about her goal of purity. Afterward, she said, teenagers would gather around and share how thankful they were that someone else was waiting, because that made it a little easier for them to wait.

With its release in 2001, Wait for Me caught on quickly, and St. James said she has heard hundreds of stories of how it was instrumental in helping people keep their pledge for purity. Married couples tell her the song helped them to abstain from sex while they were dating, and some have even played it at their weddings because it meant so much to them.

In 2002, St. James wrote a book with the same title that expounds on the issues raised in the song. It addresses subjects such as guarding thoughts in order to make wise decisions where sex is concerned, why waiting for marriage is best, practical ways to wait in a culture that screams, “Just do it!” and a question-and-answer section on sexual purity.

St. James, a member of The Peoples Church, a Baptist congregation in Franklin, Tenn., said churches have used the book during a Bible study for teens, and the Wait for Me journals are popular because they lead students to write love letters to their future spouses.

“It just kind of helps the waiting process, because you’re making something that you can one day give to that person, and then you realize: ‘Yes, I am waiting for somebody. They’re out there, and I’m writing to them,’” she said.

The book, translated into three languages for use around the world, was re-released this spring in a soft-cover edition.

Another lesson the song’s success has taught St. James is that youth yearn for a community of peers as they face the struggle for purity.

“Just about every time I hear of a young person that has slid down an immoral path, it’s because they’ve surrounded themselves with other young people who are not living the Christian life and are not committed to God’s way,” she said.

“On the other hand, I’ve also seen a lot of young people who have waited, and I think a large reason why they’ve had the strength to stand is because they’ve dated other people that are committed to waiting, and they’ve had friends that have encouraged them in that commitment,” she said. “And I know for me, I have friends that are committed to waiting, and that encourages me too.”

When she first wrote the song, St. James said, she didn’t exactly expect it to become the big hit it is now. “I knew the song would have a strong response because of its message, but I don’t think I could have guessed quite how strong that response was going to be, because Wait for Me has become one of my signature songs now,” she said.

Jimmy Hester, who along with Ross founded True Love Waits, expressed gratefulness for St. James’ willingness to be a key spokesperson for sexual abstinence until marriage.

“Wait for Me is a statement of her belief and a testimony to many teenagers on the value of following God’s plan for sexuality,” Hester said. “The impact of this song and Rebecca’s consistency over the years has made an eternal impact on the lives of many students.”

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: 5/26/06

Mural artist puts church’s
children on Noah’s ark

By Marv Knox

Editor

SAN ANTONIO—Don’t be surprised if children who grow up in Trinity Baptist Church know Bible stories and names of animals better than all their friends.

Each time they attend Sunday school, they’re surrounded—literally—by Bible stories and a sizable ensemble of survivors from Noah’s Ark.

They’re learning the stories from the common walls of Trinity’s Children’s Center—beginning with the two-story entry rotunda and extending down four long hallways on two floors—which are covered in biblical murals.

Artist Shawn Bridges is their timeless teacher. But the first stroke of the murals actually occurred in the imagination of Debbie Potter, Trinity’s children’s minister.

A bequest from longtime members Alvy and May Lee Grantham enabled the church to renovate the Children’s Center. Potter instinctively knew the facility’s decorations were at least as important to the spiritual formation of children as the structure itself.

Seeking ideas, Potter visited other churches. She toured children’s buildings modeled after space ships, movie sets and cruise liners. And while she appreciated the artistry, she felt something was missing.

“I envisioned something that children could interact with—something that would trigger their imaginations,” she explained. “But I also wanted something spiritual—something scriptural.”

Her search led her to Bridges, a local artist and member of the church.

Bridges is a Baylor University graduate whose portfolio includes portraits, murals, tabletops, chairs, at least one chandelier and just about any stationary object. She’s best known for “September 11, 2001,” a remembrance of monumental tragedy and a reminder of God’s eternal care. The painting shows God’s hands encircling firefighters, police and medical workers who died on that infamous day.

Trinity’s senior adult choir, Son Shine Singers, sold 1,500 prints of “September 11” to benefit San Antonio-based Baptist Child & Family Services. The choir even traveled with Bridges to deliver the original to the Pentagon, where it hangs in Memorial Chapel.

Although Bridges had donated many paintings to the church, Potter didn’t know her well but set up an appointment to discuss painting possibilities. They met in Bridges’ living room studio, and Potter asked her to bid on painting two activity rooms so that “when the children walked in, the walls would somehow come to life.”

The project expanded greatly in the next few moments. As the minister and artist looked at a book on Noah’s Ark by Dutch artist Rien Poortvliet, they knew what they would do—put Trinity’s children on the Ark.

Even as the size of the mural expanded, the cost immediately declined. Bridges refused to accept payment. “I told Debbie I couldn’t imagine charging for my work,” she recalled.

In early May of last year, Bridges started painting a mural that surely seemed as overwhelming as building a big boat did to Noah. But before she brushed a stroke, she put her task in perspective, a ritual she repeated every day she worked on the building.

“I put my hands on the wall and said a prayer for my church,” she noted. “And I thanked (God) for letting me be his paintbrush. If I can just be God’s paintbrush, it would be the best thing I could ever be.”

Within about four months, Bridges transformed the entire rotunda and the ground-floor hallways of both wings of the building into the Ark. The rotunda is light, airy and soaring. Not coincidentally, it’s populated primarily by birds of every imaginable sort. The background for the hallways is dark—wooden-boat dark. Visitors can imagine they’re in the hold of the ship, down where it’s dark but crowded hoof-to-snout with animals.

Bridges’ identification with small children crops up in just the right places. She painted countless tiny animals, such as a mouse beside an elephant’s foot, or a butterfly, right at eye level for toddlers and preschoolers. Sunday school teachers claim the animals seem to soothe fussy children, and youngsters have been seen “petting” their furry friends.

Noah’s Ark is home to 500 animals, not counting insects, mice and scurrying creatures too numerous to tally.

When the sea of paint cans subsided and all Noah’s animals came to rest on the Children’s Center walls, Bridges didn’t slack off. She painted her way up a winding staircase and down both halls of the center’s second floor.

One hallway depicts stories from the Old Testament, beginning in the Garden of Eden. The mezzanine level of the rotunda features the birth of Jesus, and the New Testament resumes down the other hall. Bridges painted 21 Bible stories, including a small David felling the giant Goliath and a young Jesus teaching rabbis in the temple.

Now, even though the paint—93 gallons; enough to cover 32,500 square feet of wall space—is dry, the project isn’t exactly complete, Bridges said.

“I keep seeing things I need to add—crickets and frogs and lilly pads,” she explained, acknowledging the project never will be finished “as long as I see a blank place on the wall.” For the time being, she’s “just trying to catch up on commissions” she set aside to paint at Trinity.

Although the murals teach children about Bible stories and God’s love, the project taught Bridges about patience. “I want to get things done and blast on through. But I couldn’t do that,” she said of the 11-month-long project. “I had to persevere.”

As she painted month by month on essentially the same work of art, she gained an appreciation for the work of others, whose tasks never are completed and whose progress can’t be tracked.

“Take my husband; he’s a professor of accounting,” she said. “I hope there will be many honest accountants out there because of him. But (day to day) he can’t see it.”

Bridges’ respect for children’s Sunday school teachers also grew. “I really appreciate all the teachers and workers who keep doing work that nobody sees,” she noted. “They touch so many lives.”

And speaking of being touched, Bridges said she has been blessed by the children’s response to her murals.

“I heard about a little boy who made a profession of faith” in Christ, she recalled. He was intrigued by Bridges’ painting of Jesus walking on water and the reaction of the disciples. His teacher explained the disciples were afraid.

“I don’t want to be afraid anymore,” the boy said as he asked Jesus to be his Savior.

Another child studied the Resurrection, where Jesus revealed his identity to Mary Magdalene. After a moment, the child carefully touched the hurt place in Jesus’ hand.

“Those are the things that make me want to paint the whole education building,” Bridges said, sounding as if she might have thought about a scene or two.

“This is my gift to my church,” she told San Antonio Woman magazine. “But it was also the most fun thing I have ever done. The kids were so involved. They kept coming to me, asking questions.” Thanks to a gifted artist’s gift to her church, generations of children will find the answers on the walls of their church, too.

Richard A. Marini, a writer and Trinity Baptist Church member, contributed to this article.

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: 5/26/06

The Da Vinci Code based
on a hoax, scholars agree

By Hannah Elliott

Associated Baptist Press

DALLAS (ABP)—The most debated movie of the year, The Da Vinci Code, is built on a premise revealed as a hoax more than 10 years ago, prominent historians, art experts and theologians agree.

Dan Brown’s best-selling book, The Da Vinci Code, centers around a secret group called the Priory of Sion, which Brown claims protects the centuries-old secret that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had descendants of royal blood in France.

“What the book plays on is a complete hoax,” said New Testament scholar Darrell Bock of Dallas.

“The Priory of Sion doesn’t exist,” scholar Craig Blomberg of Denver agreed. The Priory of Sion—depending on whom you believe—was created in 1099 and included such historical luminaries as Leonardo Da Vinci and Isaac Newton or was created in 1956 by a deluded anti-Semite named Pierre Plantard, now dead, whom the French government convicted of fraud.

Scholars have worked for years to disprove Plantard’s claims, which culminated with him claiming a right to the French throne by virtue of his connection to the ancient bloodline. One of the most recent investigations into the Priory of Sion came in a 60 Minutes broadcast in April, which determined Plantard’s claims to be utterly false.

Some Christians offended by the suggestion Jesus had a double life are boycotting the movie.

Despite its questionable premise, lackluster reviews and the boycott, industry observers say the movie—released May 19—will be one of the biggest of the year. The Barna Research Group estimates the movie will make more than $300 million at the box office, putting it among the top 20 money-makers of all time.

While the movie promises to flourish at the box office, that success wouldn’t come without the book as an ultra-successful precursor. A survey by Barna indicated two out of every three people who see the movie will have read the book. Brown’s novel hit the top of the New York Times best-seller list 18 weeks in a row. With more than 47 million copies in print, the book has tapped a nerve in American culture.

Part of that cultural allure comes from the hidden information, secrets and riddles layered throughout the book. Much of what Brown writes hinges on his idea that many famous pieces of art include a code about biblical events. His riveting writing style combines every element of mystery writing, historical fiction and suspense. In short, readers become members of an elite club, and as those “in the know” feel an elevated status at being privy to such important information.

Some of the core elements in Brown’s book include fragments of truth, said Bock, a New Testament professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, who wrote Breaking the Da Vinci Code: Answers to the Questions Everyone’s Asking.

For instance, Constantine, the Nicene Council and the canonical process are key elements to modern Christianity, he said. And that’s what makes it so easy for readers to be misled.

But Brown’s claims about Constantine, the council in Nicea and the canon, Bock said, are completely untrue. Many of his other claims, like the fact that Jesus himself never claimed to be divine, easily can be discredited by the New Testament alone.

“There’s very little (of Brown’s book) that’s true,” Bock said. “Virtually everything else is wrong. What the book plays on is a complete hoax.”

The book depends heavily on secret societies—Interpol, Knights Templar, the Masons and the Priory of Sion. According to Bock, the Priory of Sion, as Brown described it, didn’t even exist. And if the society doesn’t exist, much of the historical “facts” in Brown’s book crumble as well.

“The Priory of Sion is a complete hoax by four Frenchmen in the 1950s,” Bock said. At the front of the book, under a large heading titled “Fact,” Brown wrote, “The Priory of Sion—a European secret society founded in 1099—is a real organization.”

Others, however, have come to different conclusions about the little-known sect from the French town of Annemasse.

Some experts agree the earliest traces of a Prieure de Sion appear in 1099 as a Hermetic or Gnostic society that combined paganism and Christianity. Later known as the Order de Sion, led by First Crusade leader Godfroi de Bouillion, it may have become the founding group for the Knights Templar, a medieval military order created to ensure the safety of Christian pilgrims to Jerusalem.

Other historians, however, say the Priory of Sion simply turned into Jesuits in 1617. They pinpoint the founding date of the society much later—1956—and insist Plantard capitalized on a supposed secret fortune and papers hidden by a French priest in his extravagant church in Rennes-le-Chateau.

The rest of the evidence supporting the significance of the society, researchers like Bock say, is bogus. The Priory of Sion, said Blomberg, distinguished professor of New Testament at Denver Seminary, “was a hoax created by a group of friends in order to try to present Pierre Plantard as a living Frenchman with a (made-up) genealogy claiming him as heir to the French throne.”

Author of The Historical Reliability of the Gospels, Blomberg wrote a critique of The Da Vinci Code for the Denver Seminary’s theological review. He maintains the society was disbanded in the 1980s.

French records show a society registered July 20, 1956, and they list Plantard at the helm. Plantard’s integrity, however, remains suspicious. Laura Miller wrote in a Salon.com article titled “The Da Vinci Crock” that Plantard had a history of “fraud, embezzlement and membership in ultra-conservative, quasi-mystical and virulently anti-Semitic Catholic groups.”

The priory, as keeper of supposedly ancient bloodlines, “sought the reunification of Europe under the dual leadership of an orthodox Roman Catholic Church and a divinely ordained monarch, somewhat like the Holy Roman Emperor and preferably French,” she wrote.

In the 1960s, Plantard and his cronies began fabricating parchments alluding to a line of Merovingian and Frankish kings. Plantard used this “evidence” to substantiate his claim to the throne. During the same time, Plantard deposited the parchments into the French national library, hoping later to use the library as outside verification for his scheme.

Unfortunately for Plantard, his plans didn’t last as long as he hoped. In 1993, an investigative judge searched Plantard’s home and uncovered evidence that Plantard’s claims to royal blood were a fraud. Plantard eventually admitted under oath that he had fabricated everything, and he had to cease all activities related to the promotion of the Priory of Sion. He lived in obscurity until his death in Paris in 2000.

Despite the debunking, a book called Holy Blood, Holy Grail raised interest again in the Priory of Sion. Written by Jonathan Cape in 1982, the book—like The Da Vinci Code—argues Jesus survived the cross to marry Mary Magdalene, and their descendants emigrated to southern France. Once there, Cape wrote, the descendants established a Merovingian dynasty the Priory of Sion protected.

Now, more than two decades after Cape’s book, Brown has restarted interest in the line of French kings. According to Bock, that trend in historical Jesus fiction won’t end soon. “This is just the beginning,” he said. “Brown’s book is not the first one (to make the claim). There have been a lot of other books out there. I think we’ll see a lot more of this stuff coming out.”

For his part, Blomberg said the reason there’s such a market for Da Vinci-type books is the pop culture mentality. Unfortunately, he said, people will believe things they read in an “ahistorical” setting, especially if it appears to challenge historic Christianity.

“Paradoxically, those same people will not accept far better documented evidence in support of historic Christianity when presented with it,” Blomberg said. “This demonstrates that there is a spiritual as well as historical problem present.”

On the positive side, Blomberg said, that spiritual challenge provides an opportunity for Chris-tians to tell others the facts. Books like The Da Vinci Code don’t have to be negative for society, he said, even if they do make false claims.

While some Christian leaders are calling for a boycott of the movie, most theologians urge Christians to see the movie in order to talk with non-Christian friends about its content. Both Bock and Blomberg advocated reading the book and seeing the movie.

“If we react as if we’re threatened, if we censure the book and movie, we play into the hands of those who are already deceived into thinking we have something to hide, or that we’re anti-intellectual, or that the facts aren’t on our side,” he said. “As the great English writer, G. K. Chesterton, put it a century ago, ‘When people stop believing in God, they don’t believe in nothing; they believe in anything!’”

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: 5/26/06

World religion study enhances respect

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

ARLINGTON, Va. (ABP)—A new study suggests mandatory teaching about world religions in public schools can increase teenagers’ respect for religious freedom and other constitutional rights.

The research studied 400 ninth graders who took the course in the Modesto, Calif., public schools. The district has offered the class since 2000. It is the only required course of its type in the United States, said Charles Haynes, senior scholar at the Freedom Forum’s First Amendment Center, which sponsored the study.

Modesto’s program offered a unique opportunity to ask, “What does it mean to take religion very seriously in the curriculum?” Haynes said. “In many places, people are very afraid to touch it; many teachers and administrators are afraid that if you touch it, you’re going to get into trouble.”

But the study “shows the ingenuity and initiative of Modesto paid off,” said Emile Lester, the study’s co-author and a professor of government at Virginia’s College of William and Mary.

Modesto—population around 200,000—is located in California’s Central Valley, sometimes referred to as the state’s “Bible Belt.” Unlike other areas of the vast and diverse state, the Central Valley has long had a largely Protestant population, with a high percentage of conservative evangelicals. How-ever, recent decades have seen dramatic growth in Asian immigrants to the area—among them large Muslim, Sikh, Buddhist and Hindu communities.

As part of a response to tensions that arose in the late 1990s in Modesto, the district began a “safe schools” campaign to find ways to get students to respect each other’s differences. One of the ways district and community leaders suggested was by teaching more about religious differences. After consulting with educators, parents, students, lawyers and local religious leaders, the district designed the half-semester course and began teaching it in 2000.

The class initially studied seven major world religions in the chronological order of their establishment. The course also included study of the First Amendment’s guarantees for freedom of conscience, taking note to include that atheists and agnostics also are protected by the same guarantees.

“Modesto handled the inevitable tensions brought about by diversity in a productive way, by crafting a course on world religions and the American tradition of religious liberty,” said Patrick Roberts, a political scientist at Stanford University, who was the study’s other co-author.

Students, whom researchers interviewed in-depth before and after the students took the course, emerged more likely to have respect for those of other religions and for religious freedom and other First Amendment ideals.

For instance, prior to taking the course, 80 percent of students said it was acceptable for students of all faiths to wear religious symbols on their clothing while in school. After taking the course, 85 percent agreed with that statement. There were similar increases in the percentage of students saying a candidate’s religious views should not exclude him or her from public office, and people of all faiths had an equal right to erect religious displays on private property.

Although the increases were modest, the researchers said, they nonetheless were statistically significant.

The study also suggested students had a marked increase in the respect they held for other First Amendment ideals after taking the course. For instance, only 25 percent of the pre-course students agreed that whichever political or social group they liked least should have the right to hold public rallies. After the course, 35 percent of students supported extending that right to their least-favored group.

The study also found students gained more respect for the similarities between world religions after taking the course. Prior to the course, about 46 percent agreed with the statement, “all religions share the same basic moral values.” Afterwards, more than 63 percent agreed with that statement.

But that result did not reflect an increase in syncretistic religious beliefs among students, the study’s authors stressed. There was not a statistically significant decline in the percentage of students who agreed with the statement, “I believe that one religion is definitely right, and all others are wrong.”

“Religious conservatives might worry that the course sheds light on similarities of religions traditions, but simultaneously might promote relativism,” Roberts said. “Modesto shows that, even in the most diverse of school districts, this conclusion is wrong. Bringing religious differences out in the open can help students realize that, in America, even religious believers and nonbelievers share a belief in the freedom of conscience.”

That’s because the course was not designed to change students’ views of their own faith, and because parents and religious leaders of all stripes were included from the beginning in the curriculum’s development, said a Modesto teacher who helped design the course and teaches it.

“The religious leaders in our community were very enthusiastic and very supportive of what we wanted to do and what we were trying to do,” said Jennie Sweeney, who teaches the course as well as history classes at Modesto’s Johansen High School. She also serves as the social science curriculum coordinator for the school district.

The full report is available on the First Amendment Center’s website at www.firstamendmentcenter.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: 5/26/06

Attorney hired to guide
church-starting fund investigation

By Ferrell Foster

Texas Baptist Communications

HOUSTON—The Baptist General Convention of Texas has engaged Brownsville attorney Diane Dillard to investigate alleged mishandling of church-starting funds in the Rio Grande Valley.

“The investigation will seek to determine if church-starting funds were misapplied in the Valley either in a significant number of isolated instances or as a part of a more coordinated process or scheme,” said BGCT Executive Board Chair Bob Fowler of Houston.

Dillard was selected by Fowler and Executive Board Vice Chair Jim Nelson of Austin, along with the BGCT officers—President Michael Bell of Fort Worth, First Vice President Steve Vernon of Levelland and Second Vice President Dan Wooldridge of Georgetown.

Fowler characterized Dillard as a “widely respected business attorney, known throughout the state” for her service to the Texas legal profession and leadership in promoting the ethical standards of attorneys.

She is the former chair of the 7,000-member Real Estate, Probate and Trust Section of the State Bar of Texas, practiced law in Houston and now teaches business law at the University of Texas-Brownsville.

Dillard and her husband, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen, have maintained their membership at South Main Baptist Church in Houston. Since relocating to the Valley, they have attended the Episcopal Church of the Advent in Brownsville.

Dillard is a graduate of Baylor University and Baylor Law School and is past president of the Baylor Alumni Association.

Suspicions surround the large number of cell-group missions reported as church-starts in the lower Rio Grande Valley from 1996 to 2003.

If Dillard discovers funds were misapplied, she has been asked to identify the time frame involved, the extent of the misapplication, how the misapplication occurred, who initiated the misapplication, what persons or organizations inappropriately received funds and who was aware of any misapplication, Fowler said.

“Those who believe that every dollar spent on church starts over a period of years will be specifically identified and accounted for are likely to be disappointed,” he said. “As an attorney who represents corporate clients exclusively, I know an investigation that extensive would be extraordinarily expensive.

“The Executive Board has a responsibility to be certain that what the convention spends in pursuing this matter reflects the board’s ongoing stewardship of the gifts that churches and individuals have entrusted to it. That very real budgetary constraint will be the only specific limitation placed on Ms. Dillard in conducting the investigation. But we are confident she’ll do a thorough job.”

Dillard is authorized to engage investigators and other support personnel as she deems appropriate. Consequently, she has indicated Michael Rodriguez—partner in the Brownsville law firm of Rodriguez & Nicholas—will work with her in conducting the investigation. Rodriquez is a former prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Dillard’s client in the investigation is the convention itself, not the Executive Board or the staff, Fowler said. She will report to Fowler and Nelson as representatives of the convention during the course of the investigation. The final report will be presented to the full Executive Board for any action, including any recommendation to the full convention, no later than the September board meeting.

“While we expect Ms. Dillard to report everything significant that she uncovers and can substantiate, matters outside of the Valley church-starting funds allegations will be beyond the scope of her investigation,” Fowler 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.