2007 Archives
-
Global peace a growing priority for Christian groups
Posted: 1/19/07
Global peace a growing
priority for Christian groups
By Hannah Elliott
Associated Baptist Press
DALLAS (ABP)—Worldwide, about 1.6 million people each year die due directly to violence. Violence is responsible for 14 percent of deaths among males aged 15 to 44 and 7 percent of deaths for females of the same age, the World Health Organi-zation reports. And it’s up to Christians to stop it, several groups working to promote peace around the world insist.
Steve Bostian, U.S. director of Hope Unlimited, said his group’s focus on investing in children in a Christ-centered way separates it from other attempts to eradicate violence among Brazil’s 10 million street children. That investment in individuals rather than broad social change is a model for peace that Bostian—a former American Baptist missionary—hopes to spread.
See Related Articles:
• MAKING PEACE: Creating a congregational culture of peacemaking takes time
• Time to call a mediator when focus turns from problems to personalities
• Global peace a growing priority for Christian groups
• Do conservative evangelicals regret justifying Iraq war?01/19/2007 - By John Rutledge
-
Time to call a mediator when focus turns from problems to personalities
Posted: 1/19/07
Time to call a mediator when focus
turns from problems to personalitiesDALLAS—When church members who disagree stop looking for solutions to problems and start focusing on personalities, it’s probably time to call a mediator, said Sonny Spurger, a church mediation specialist with the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
Sonny Spurger Spurger points to five levels of conflict, identified by Speed Leas of the Alban Institute, as helpful markers for identifying how problems escalate to church fights.
• A problem develops that needs to be solved.
See Related Articles:
• MAKING PEACE: Creating a congregational culture of peacemaking takes time
• Time to call a mediator when focus turns from problems to personalities
• Global peace a growing priority for Christian groups
• Do conservative evangelicals regret justifying Iraq war?Some people may have conflicting goals or values, and interaction may be uncomfortable. But at this point, the conflict still is problem-oriented, rather than personality-centered. If the problem is not solved at this level, it likely will escalate to the next level where it becomes personal.
01/19/2007 - By John Rutledge
-
MAKING PEACE: Creating a congregational culture of peacemaking takes time
Posted: 1/19/07
MAKING PEACE:
Creating a congregational
culture of peacemaking takes timeBy Ken Camp
Managing Editor
NACOGDOCHES—Helping a church become a peaceable fellowship is a never-ending battle, Pastor Kyle Childress acknowledged. But as Christians wage peace within church, they learn skills that help them build bridges in a divided world, he added.
“It’s a round-the-clock, long-term thing,” said Childress, pastor of Austin Heights Baptist Church in Nacogdoches. “In the 17 years I’ve been here, one of the major challenges I consistently have had is helping people learn and practice reconciliation with one another.”
(Photo illustration by David Clanton) See Related Articles:
• MAKING PEACE: Creating a congregational culture of peacemaking takes time
• Time to call a mediator when focus turns from problems to personalities
• Global peace a growing priority for Christian groups
• Do conservative evangelicals regret justifying Iraq war?01/19/2007 - By John Rutledge
-
-
Texas Tidbits
Posted: 1/19/07
Texas Tidbits
Hispanic Mission Network to debut. Leaders of Hispanic Texas Baptist churches that are engaging members in missions—along with representatives from Baptist University of the Americas, WorldconneX and Buckner International—will launch a Hispanic Mission Network at the Hispanic Evangelism Conference, Feb. 2-3 in San Antonio. Participants plan to conduct a global/local mission project within the network’s first year that could provide a model for Hispanic church involvement. About 30 Hispanic leaders and missions practitioners met at Baptist University of the Americas recently for a Plaza Global two-day event to discuss the network and explore emerging trends in global missions.
Hardin-Simmons, ETBU athletic trainers honored. The athletic training staffs at Hardin-Simmons University and East Texas Baptist University each were named by their peers as division winners of the American Southwest Conference athletic training staff of the year awards for 2005-06. Hardin-Simmons was presented the west division award, and ETBU took the east division honor. The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor won the west division honor the previous academic year.
01/19/2007 - By John Rutledge
-
BGCT intercultural mission trip slated for Vancouver
Posted: 1/19/07
Up to 40,000 Japanese call Vancouver home, and Pastor Yutaka Takarada wants Texas Baptists to partner with Canadian Baptist counterparts to reach them. BGCT intercultural mission
trip slated for VancouverBy Barbara Bedrick
Texas Baptist Communications
DALLAS—When Yutaka Takarada flew to Vancouver, British Columbia, last year, he found ample salmon, Japanese restaurants and views of the harbor.
But what he didn’t see worried him. Even though Vancouver has a sizeable Japanese population, the president of the Japanese Southern Baptist Churches of America couldn’t find many Japanese Baptist churches.
01/19/2007 - By John Rutledge
-
