CYBER COLUMN by Jinny Henson: Thank God he’s no helicopter parent

Posted: 3/09/06

CYBER COLUMN:
Thank God he's no helicopter parent

By Jinny Henson

On a flight from DFW to Chicago not long ago, I heard the most audacious example yet of helicopter parenting—a term used to describe the hovering nature of parents engineering their child’s every situation to create a positive result. Blame it on the vapid competition today’s children face or our parental thirst for validation, but these days some parents are hovering; paving the way and quick to indulge.

Behind me was a mother in her late 30s attempting to instruct her son in California via cell phone how to properly load cartridges into his new Nintendo D.S. player. She had him read the directions to her twice and offered her take on them. The Nintendo, it seems, has a space for both Nintendo games and its forerunner, Game Boy game cartridges. Oddly enough, the Granny Nanny taking care of the kids was of absolutely no assistance. Imagine that.

03/09/2007 - By John Rutledge

Baptists’ post-Katrina efforts in Louisiana still under way

Updated: 3/02/07

Baptists’ post-Katrina efforts
in Louisiana still under way

By Carla Wynn

Cooperative Baptist Fellowship

LACOMBE, La. (ABP)—It’s been a long road for the home of Loretta and Samuel Ducre of Lacombe, La.

Their original home is gone—destroyed in August 2005 when Hurricane Katrina mauled the Gulf Coast. And its replacement, built and furnished by volunteers, has been on its way for nearly a year.

03/03/2007 - By John Rutledge

If heaven is filled with music, Larner arrived early

Updated: 3/02/07

If heaven is filled with music,
Bernice Larner arrived early

By George Henson

Staff Writer

MORGAN MILL—For the last 70 years, Sunday mornings have found Bernice Larner at a church piano bench. And she’s been blessed with every hymn she’s played, including her favorite, “He Keeps Me Singing.”

In addition to 62 years at Morgan Mill Baptist Church, Larner also was pianist for a church in Odessa for four years in the mid-1950s and in Azle for four years in the late-1960s.

03/03/2007 - By John Rutledge

ETBU international students offer global perspective

Updated: 3/02/07

ETBU international students offer
community a global perspective

By Mike Midkiff

East Texas Baptist University

MARSHALL—International students at East Texas Baptist University gave Marshall-area children and university students a glimpse into their native lands during an on-campus international fair.

The university’s international education office invited children’s missions and Bible groups from East Texas churches to the fair.

03/03/2007 - By John Rutledge

Texas Acteen selected for national panel

Updated: 3/02/07

Megan Jones	Mallory Harrell	Lili Muongkhot	Erin Radomsky

Texas Acteen selected for national panel

By Amy Whitfield

Woman’s Missionary Union

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.—Woman’s Missionary Union has selected Tiffany Clark, 16, of Humble Area’s First Baptist Church to be a 2007 National Acteens Panelist.

Tiffany earned the honor because of her strong commitment to missions and to Acteens, a Baptist missions program for teenage girls, national WMU officials said. They also cited her exemplary leadership and involvement in her school, community and church.

Tiffany Clark

03/03/2007 - By John Rutledge

‘From the Dust’ takes music behind bars

Updated: 3/02/07

'From the Dust' takes music behind bars

By George Henson

Staff Writer

THE COLONY—Like missionaries Paul and Silas in the New Testament, band members of the Christian band From the Dust hope taking their songs to prisons might cause inmates to ask, “What must I do to be saved?”

From the Dust grew out of a church praise band that led worship on Sunday mornings.

Kevin Snow, bass guitarist and vocalist for From the Dust.

• Watch video clips about the ministry of From the Dust here and here. • Hear their blues version of Blessed Assurance. • Listen to more music at their website, www.fromthedust.com.

03/03/2007 - By John Rutledge

Sweet tells Truett conference God is ‘defragging and rebooting’ church

Updated: 3/02/07

Sweet tells Truett conference
God is ‘defragging and rebooting’ church

By Hannah Elliott

Associated Baptist Press

WACO (ABP)—Deal with it, get over it or get help. That’s Leonard Sweet’s mantra when it comes to understanding Christianity’s fluid role in the postmodern world.

The Christian church is in the midst of a “perfect storm,” Sweet told a crowd at Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary. Such stormy weather is manifested in, among other things, postmodernism —the worldview that questions modern assumptions about certainty and progress. Modernism gave Christians a preferred status as “chaplain” to the culture. But Christians in the West no longer can expect to have that “home-court advantage,” he said.

03/03/2007 - By John Rutledge

Did the IMB ‘investigate’ charges? Burleson, president say no

Updated: 3/02/07

Did the IMB ‘investigate’ charges?
Burleson, president say no

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

RICHMOND, Va. (ABP)—Wade Burleson says the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board did not conduct an “investigation” into his allegations of trustee improprieties—despite some trustees’ insistence to the contrary.

“What idiot told Mr. Burleson there was no trustee investigative committee?” asked trustee Jerry Corbaley recently on his blog.

03/03/2007 - By John Rutledge

Identity conference questions SBC’s direction

Updated: 3/02/07

Identity conference questions SBC’s direction

By Phillip Jordan

Associated Baptist Press

JACKSON, Tenn. (ABP)—The future should be bright for the Southern Baptist Convention, but it won’t be if infighting continues, SBC President Frank Page insisted at a conference on Baptist identity.

Page, pastor of First Baptist Church of Taylors, S.C., urged Southern Baptists—who have been squabbling over narrowing doctrinal parameters and other issues—to stick together.

03/03/2007 - By John Rutledge

Gonzales touts religious-freedom initiative; others question Bush record

Updated: 3/02/07

Gonzales touts religious-freedom
initiative; others question Bush record

By Lonnie Wilkey & Robert Marus

Tennessee Baptist & Reflector / Associated Baptist Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP)—Attorney General Alberto Gonzales chose the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee’s winter meeting to announce a new Justice Department focus on religious freedom.

But some Christian leaders questioned the move, as well as the Bush administration’s commitment to a robust defense of the Constitution’s religious protections.

03/03/2007 - By John Rutledge

CBF council reports declining revenues, adopts new budget

Updated: 3/02/07

CBF council reports declining
revenues, adopts new budget

By Hannah Elliott

Associated Baptist Press

DECATUR, Ga. (ABP)—Halfway through their fiscal year, leaders of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship learned about a significant revenue shortfall during the CBF Coordinating Council winter meeting in Decatur, Ga.

Undesignated receipts were 13.2 percent below the year-to-date budget, according to a financial summary of the six months ended Dec. 31, 2006. That budget itself had been revised downward from an earlier adopted budget.

03/03/2007 - By John Rutledge

Covenant most important Baptist event since Civil War, Allen says

Updated: 3/02/07

Covenant most important Baptist
event since Civil War, Allen says

By Hannah Elliott

Associated Baptist Press

DECATUR, Ga. (ABP)—Next January’s “Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant” will be the most important Baptist event since before the Civil War, an emotional Jimmy Allen told Cooperative Baptist Fellowship leaders.

Allen, the last moderate to serve as president of the Southern Baptist Convention, stressed that the two Democratic former presidents leading the charge for the historic pan-Baptist gathering—Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton—want to avoid politics at the rally.

03/03/2007 - By John Rutledge