Texas Tidbits

Posted: 12/14/07

Texas Tidbits

Group encourages women in Baptist pulpits. Baptist Women in Ministry is encouraging Baptist churches to invite a woman from their congregation, community or a seminary to preach Feb. 3 as part of the Martha Stearns Marshall Day of Preaching. The day honors Marshall, an 18th century Baptist preacher, and is meant to further develop the skills of Baptist women who feel God’s calling to preach. Last year, more than 50 congregations in the United States and one in Japan participated in the day. Baptist Women in Ministry hopes at least 100 churches will participate this year, said Julie O’Teter, a member of the group’s leadership team. For more information, visit www.bwim.info or e-mail Julie.Oteter@bgct.org.

 Texans on New Baptist Covenant program. Two Texas Baptist pastors—George Mason from Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas and Ellis Orosco from Calvary Baptist Church in McAllen—will be part of a miniature preaching festival within next year’s Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant. The homiletics mini-conference is scheduled to take place during the breakout-session times at the conference, Jan. 30-Feb. 1 in Atlanta.

Church delays decision on gay couples. Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth postponed a scheduled Dec. 2 decision on whether to include homosexuals as couples in a church pictorial directory. The church referred the matter to its deacons, who are expected to bring a recommendation by Feb. 24. The issue surfaced when some gay church members asked to be photographed as couples and pictured as such in the church directory, scheduled for publication as part of the church’s 125th anniversary celebration. Some members expressed concern that picturing gays as couples would be perceived as the church’s endorsement of homosexual behavior. The Baptist General Convention of Texas—with which Broadway is affiliated—is on record affirming churches that minister to homosexuals but has characterized homosexual behavior as sinful. BGCT practice has been to reject financial contributions from a church that endorses homosexual behavior, thereby essentially cutting ties between that church and the state convention.

Valley Baptist’s cardiovascular care recognized nationally. Valley Baptist Medical Center-Harlingen has been named one of the top 100 hospitals in the nation—and the only one south of Houston—for saving lives and reducing complications in heart patients. The results from the Thomson Top 100 Hospitals awards will be published in Modern Healthcare, and the award will be presented to Valley Baptist at the 100 Top Hospitals Summit in Colorado Springs, Co., next summer. Thomson Healthcare analyzed and scored Valley Baptist and more than 1,000 other hospitals around the country for patient survival rates, preventing infections, and other measures related to heart attack, congestive heart failure, bypass surgery, angioplasties and other coronary interventions.