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TOGETHER: Missions requires balanced approach
Posted: 8/17/07
TOGETHER:
Missions requires balanced approachMissions has changed. Churches no longer see missions as simply something a select few do while the churches provide the money and prayers. More and more church members are getting involved in missions themselves, and this is a powerful engine for kingdom advance, which I applaud.
I want our churches to do more direct missions, but I also want every church to remain committed to cooperative missions through the BGCT. There is a temptation for a church to lower its support for cooperative missions in order to fund efforts they know on a more personal basis. When churches do this, it can create a serious lack of support for cooperative missions.
Executive Director
BGCT Executive Board
Ironically, the motivation and encouragement for the increased emphasis on local and global efforts by a congregation often has come about because of the efforts of our convention. For example, our efforts to develop key mission churches by helping them call ministers of missions and to expose our churches to Partnership Missions opportunities in countries around the globe has created an unbelievable explosion of local-church involvement in missions.
In Texas, we can see the power of cooperative effort. Through the BGCT Cooperative Program, you support missionaries around the world, theological training for our future pastors and leaders, and church starting in Texas and throughout the United States. Last year, we started 204 churches in Texas. And we now have 103 cowboy churches—80 of them started since October 2004.
08/17/2007 - By John Rutledge
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Pastoral residency offers mentoring for young ministers
Posted: 8/17/07
Young ministers who have been through the pastoral residency program at Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas include (left to right) Jay Hogewood, Sean Allen, Amy Grizzle, Brad Jernberg, Ann Bell Worley, David King, Jake Hall and Andrew Daugherty. Not pictured is second-year resident Anne Jernberg. Pastoral residency offers
mentoring for young ministersBy Mark Wingfield
Special to the Baptist Standard
ALLAS—When a Baptist minister graduates from seminary or divinity school, what factors predict whether that person will succeed or fail in local church ministry?
Educational training plays a part, as does the personality of the congregation the minister serves. But according to data gathered by the Lilly Endowment, other intangibles play perhaps an even greater role in predicting whether that minister will remain in ministry five, 10 or 15 years down the road.
08/17/2007 - By John Rutledge
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Students want to serve God’s kingdom– not necessarily in the church
Posted: 8/17/07
Randall Maurer, professor of psychology and family ministries at Hardin-Simmons University, leads a discussion forum of (clockwise from left) Amanda Cutbirth, Ramundo Silva, Meredith Stone and Daniel Dotson. (Photos/courtesy of Hardin-Simmons University) Students want to serve God’s kingdom
– not necessarily in the churchBy Ken Camp
Managing Editor
College students who feel a calling into ministry passionately want to make a difference for God’s kingdom. But a significant number don’t believe the local-church setting is the place to do it, according to guidance directors for ministerial students at some Baptist schools.
“I think that for both positive and negative reasons, a lot of young people don’t see themselves settling into local-church ministry positions,” said Omer Hancock, professor of church ministry and director of in-service guidance at Hardin-Simmons University’s Logsdon School of Theology. “An increasing number of our students are gravitating to other areas—other expressions of ministry.”
See related articles:
• PASSING THE TORCH: Does pastoral transition have to be hard?
• Collaboration essential part of effective mentoring
• The church has a new pastor. When will it start to feel normal?
• Pastoral residency offers mentoring for young ministers
• Students want to serve God's kingdom' not necessarily in the church
08/17/2007 - By John Rutledge
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PASSING THE TORCH: Does pastoral transition have to be hard?
Posted: 8/17/07
PASSING THE TORCH:
Does pastoral transition have to be hard?By Hannah Elliott
Associated Baptist Press
When a longtime pastor leaves, succession can be sticky
When the only pastor an entire generation at a church has known leaves, there’s no set model for ensuring a smooth transition, experts say. The right way to do it at one time in a church’s history may be wrong at another time. And orchestrating a succession at a mega-church is much different than easing into one in a smaller community.
See related articles:
• PASSING THE TORCH: Does pastoral transition have to be hard?
• Collaboration essential part of effective mentoring
• The church has a new pastor. When will it start to feel normal?
• Pastoral residency offers mentoring for young ministers
• Students want to serve God's kingdom' not necessarily in the church
08/17/2007 - By John Rutledge
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Pentagon investigation faults generals for endorsing evangelical ministry
Posted: 8/17/07
Pentagon investigation faults generals
for endorsing evangelical ministryBy Robert Marus
ABP Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON (ABP)—A group of high-ranking Pentagon officials improperly endorsed and aided an evangelical Christian ministry, according to a Defense Department investigation recently made public.
The Department of Defense inspector general’s report was dated July 20 and released to the public by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. The watchdog group requested an investigation last year into a promotional video for Christian Embassy.
08/17/2007 - By John Rutledge
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Drake won’t repeat as SBC 2nd VP; won’t rule out higher office
Posted: 5/27/07
Drake won’t repeat as SBC 2nd VP;
won’t rule out higher officeBy Hannah Elliott
Associated Baptist Press
BUENA PARK, Calif. (ABP)—Wiley Drake, the Los Angeles-area pastor, radio crusader and Southern Baptist Convention gadfly, has announced he will not allow himself to be nominated for a second term as second vice president of the convention.
The convention will meet June 12-13 in San Antonio.
SBC Vice President Wiley Drake broacasts his daily radio show from his cell phone in Buena Park, Calif. (ABP photo by Greg Warner) 08/16/2007 - By John Rutledge
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KidsHeart builds relationships, grows churches
Posted: 8/10/07
Pastor Ismael Garcia, second from right, pushes The Church at Canyon Creek's van out of the mud. The team from Canyon Creek was leaving to pick up children for Vacation Bible School at Iglesia Bautista Sublime Gracia in Progreso, part of KidsHeart missions week in the Rio Grande Valley. (Photos by Russ Dilday/Buckner) KidsHeart builds relationships, grows churches
By Jenny Pope
Buckner International
PROGRESO—Pastor Ismael Gaspar dug his heels in the mud as the church van’s tires spun with no avail. The KidsHeart mission team from The Church at Canyon Creek, Austin, was stuck.
It took nearly an hour of pushing, spinning and sliding through Iglesia Bautista Sublime Gracia’s muddy parking lot—caused by several days of unusual Valley thunderstorms—before the van was finally released.
08/16/2007 - By John Rutledge
