Archives
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Dallas Cowboy’s son & other youth score at Camp Exalted
Posted: 8/03/07
Dallas Cowboy’s son & other
youth score at Camp ExaltedBy Barbara Bedrick
Texas Baptist Communications
AN MARCOS—Snagging gummy worms immersed in a paper plate full of vanilla and chocolate pudding is not exactly what Eugene Lockhart expected to be doing recently. He had anticipated being on the field at Texas Stadium with his dad, who was leading a Big Brothers Big Sisters of North Texas fundraiser.
Instead, Lockhart joined nearly 250 middle school and high school students and college freshmen for Camp Exalted July 16-20 at San Marcos Baptist Academy.
Eugene Lockhart 08/03/2007 - By John Rutledge
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2nd Opinion: Great news at a glad reunion
Posted: 8/03/07
2nd Opinion:
Great news at a glad reunionBy Brad Riza
They all are older now, and most are larger around the middle. Some have less hair, and everyone’s hair is a little lighter than it was then. Still, they made their way to Hideaway, near Tyler, this summer for an unusual military reunion. They weren’t all from the same military unit, not even from the same branch of the service. They were Marines, Air Force, Army and Navy. Some were postal workers, and others were fighter pilots and airlift specialists. Some were police and others chaplains. They weren’t even in Vietnam at the same time. The only thing these people had in common was a connection with Trinity Baptist Church in Saigon.
In the early ’60s, the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board endorsed Jim and Mary Humphries to go to Vietnam and pastor an English-speaking church in downtown Saigon. That was their mission—but they did way more than that! They worked with military and embassy personnel for sure, but they also reached out to many Vietnamese families, sharing their friendship and eventually the gospel. They trained and mentored Vietnamese who would be future pastors and leaders.
On a Friday night in July, many of those whose lives were touched by Jim and Mary traveled to their home just like they used to do on Friday nights in Vietnam. And just like in Vietnam, they had a great meal and a wonderful fellowship time. They met others who had been a part of that congregation at a different time. They spoke of ministry and worship and communion. They recalled working with orphans. They sang together, just as they did almost four decades ago.
No one spoke of politics. They did not debate the propriety of the war. They simply celebrated the opportunity to share ministry during a year that they were there—a year they were away from their families when they found a church family to fill that void.
08/03/2007 - By John Rutledge
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Discipleship: It’s all about the basics
Posted: 8/03/07
Discipleship: It’s all about the basics
By Rebekah Hardage
Communications Intern
GARLAND—Ron and Cindy Blevins believe teenagers learn the importance of a daily walk with God the same way they learn core subjects at school.
“It’s like a math class. You’ve got to have the basics first,” Blevins explained. The Blevinses have written a youth discipleship program, Course for Life, that focuses on the basics—memorizing Scripture, daily quiet time and mission projects that help the students make their relationship with God a priority.
08/03/2007 - By John Rutledge
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DOWN HOME: OK, who’s the owner here?
Posted: 8/03/07
DOWN HOME:
OK, who’s the owner here?I’m not sure whether Joanna and I own our home, or this house owns us.
(OK, technically, the bank owns our home. But we’re paying down, and if we live to be old enough, we’ll hold the title. Don’t get hung up on the details here.)
Not quite a year ago, we sold the home where we raised our daughters. I loved that place. It was comfortable and suited our family. Even empty, the walls seemed to echo the voices and laughter that provided the soundtrack to our lives for almost 11 years. The rooms fairly buzzed with memories of all the happy times we shared there.
But the commute to work grew more dismal by the day. Too many cars and trucks on too few roads means too long driving to and from work. I began to fantasize about living in a village with only one flashing light.
08/03/2007 - By John Rutledge
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EDITORIAL: Texas Baptists learn to live at peace
Posted: 8/03/07
EDITORIAL:
Texas Baptists learn to live at peaceDemocracy sure is messy. Especially in times of peace.
For years, the Baptist General Convention of Texas faced an ominous threat: Fundamentalists with a theological/political agenda for absolute domination set out to take control of the Southern Baptist world. They succeeded nationally in 1990, and then they set their sights on state conventions. One fundamentalist leader notoriously said their ultimate prizes were the BGCT, Baylor University and the Baptist Standard.
For traditional Texas Baptists living “abroad”—beyond our borders—those years afforded numerous opportunities for embarrassment. The most visible leaders of the fundamentalist movement hailed from Texas, so outsiders associated Texas Baptists with their theo-political excesses. Non-Texans seemed to think the BGCT would fall and become the bastion of Baptist fundamentalism.
This left traditional Texas Baptists saying something like this: “The BGCT is not like that. Traditional Texas Baptists are biblical conservatives, but we’re certainly not fundamentalists. We believe in the priesthood of all believers and religious liberty. We champion local-church autonomy. Texas Baptists will resist fundamentalism like nobody else. Our convention will stay strong. When others fall, the BGCT will remain a beacon for liberty and freedom.”
08/03/2007 - By John Rutledge
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WMU FamilyFEST joins Buckner, BGCT to minister on the border
Posted: 8/03/07
Pablo González, pastor of Iglesia Bautista Antioquia in Juarez, consults with one of the residents in his church’s transitional living home. The mother of three cares for her children during the day while her husband drives workers to and from the maquiladora factories. WMU FamilyFEST joins Buckner,
BGCT to minister on the borderBy Jenny Pope
Buckner International
JUAREZ, Mexico—Jan Burton sat with Pastor Pascual Juarez from Iglesia Bautista Genesis as he told her, through a translator, about the hardships of serving God in a border town. Weeks earlier, thugs burned his trailer to the ground, held him at gunpoint and threatened to kill him and his family.
“He told us that he was not going to leave Juarez until God sent him away,” Burton said.
08/03/2007 - By John Rutledge
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Faith Digest
Posted: 8/03/07
Faith Digest
Study links religious liberty with prosperity. Religious freedom goes hand-in-hand with economic well-being and freedom of the press—but not necessarily with a secular or religiously oriented government. Those are the some findings of a global survey conducted by the Center for Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute, a conservative-leaning think tank in Washington, D.C. Researchers named radical Islam the biggest threat to religious freedom. Most of the nations listed as “least religiously free” were states with Muslim extremism, while those with the most religious freedom had Christian roots, according to the report. The countries that scored one on the seven-tier Religious Freedom Index, indicating the greatest religious liberty, were the United States, Ireland, Estonia and Hungary. Countries rated seven, indicating the most religious restriction, were Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Sudan. As a result of events over the past year, Iraq also sunk to the lowest rank of religious freedom.
Welsh church: ‘Power to the people.’ An aging Anglican church in Wales has come up with a modern way to give—or at least sell—power to the people by marketing its spare electricity to Britain’s National Grid. The power comes from 30 solar panels installed as part of a $1.5 million restoration at the crumbling, Victorian-era St. Joseph’s Church in Cwmaman, in the Cynon Valley. Pastor David Way initially had his doubts, but the church now has discovered that the $66,000 array of panels are producing far more electricity than had been expected or needed. The church now will sell off the surplus.
08/03/2007 - By John Rutledge
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Baptist volunteers rebuilding lives one house at a time
Posted: 8/03/07
Baptist volunteers rebuilding
lives one house at a timeBy Jessica Dooley
Communications Intern
’HANIS—When Mario Reyes woke up on July 20, he expected it to be a Saturday like any other. But when he looked out his window and saw water rushing through a nearby pasture, he knew he had to get out of his house.
Most residents received little or no warning about the overflowing Seco River, so Reyes took it upon himself to inform his neighbors before heading for higher ground.
Texas Baptist Men volunteers serve in D’Hanis, helping the community near Hondo recover from a flood. 08/03/2007 - By John Rutledge
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Religion still ‘marginalized’ in foreign policy
Posted: 8/03/07
Religion still ‘marginalized’ in foreign policy
By David Anderson
Religion News Service
WASHINGTON (RNS)—U.S. foreign policy officials have shown an increased understanding of religion’s importance to American diplomacy, but the government’s activities in that area display a “lack of strategic thinking” that hampers efforts abroad, according to a new report.
U.S. officials do not have “a clear set of policy objectives or tactical guidelines for dealing with emerging religious realities,” said the 92-page report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington. “Offices, programs and initiatives are more often happen-stance than coherent.”
08/03/2007 - By John Rutledge
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Burned Iraqi children need medical supplies; chaplain seeks help
Posted: 8/03/07
Burned Iraqi children need
medical supplies; chaplain seeks helpBy John Hall
Texas Baptist Communications
DALLAS—A Baptist General Convention of Texas-endorsed Army chaplain is encouraging churches to send medical supplies to support a U.S. military-run medical clinic in Iraq for child burn victims.
Mark Richardson, a military chaplain endorsed by the Baptist General Convention of Texas, boards a plane for Iraq. Richardson has requested medical supplies for a clinic for burned Iraqi children. Needed: medical supplies include bandages, dressings, medical scissors and hydrogen peroxide.
Here is a complete list of requested items.Items can be mailed directly to Chap. Mark Richardson, CSC Scania, APO AE 09331. For more information,
call Reba Gram at 888-244-9400 or e-mail Reba.Gram@bgct.org.U.S. military personnel treat as many as 100 young people a week in South Central Iraq during the winter and 25 a week during the summer. One in five patients is burned as a result of the conflict there. Most of the burns are a result of accidents, since many Iraqis cook with gasoline and heat their homes with diesel heaters.
08/03/2007 - By John Rutledge
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Texas Baptist Forum
Posted: 8/03/07
Texas Baptist Forum
Future of missions
Discussion of the need for career missionaries and their role (July 9) contained quotes that show an incomplete view of missions.
• Jump to online-only letters below Letters are welcomed. Send them to marvknox@baptiststandard.com; 250 words maximum.
“We’ve got to give a very strong message, I speak to the Muslims now, that these martyrs aren’t going to heaven. These sinners are very much going to hell.”
Shahid Malik
British minister of international development and a Muslim, on violence committed in the name of Islam (CNN/RNS)“Instead of looking at global warming as Jerry Falwell has called it, ‘Satan’s diversion,’ we should see it as a note from God that says: ‘I said to be a steward, my children. Sin has consequence, and if you pollute this earth, there will be a price to pay. But it’s not too late, and with my help you can restore Eden.’”
Richard Cizik
Vice president for governmental affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals, quoted among a dozen people giving “12 Ideas for the Planet” (Newsweek/RNS)“I can’t think of a religious group he didn’t offend. He even did a cartoon that upset the Episcopalians, and you know how hard it is to upset Episcopalians.”
John Shelton Reed
Longtime friend of the late editorial cartoonist Doug Marlette (The Washington Post/RNS)To say sending congregational members overseas is cheaper is based on incomplete accounting: It costs much more because of the proportion of travel costs, but this falls on individuals and does not show up as a budget line item. Also, to say outsiders should never plant churches overlooks the fact the first congregations in a community, whether defined by barriers of language, religion or distance, will always involve outsiders. Subsequent church multiplication will be done by local believers.
Serious ministry depends on language abilities, cultural awareness and trust. These are developed over time. People on a typical mission trip usually are dependent on translators, unable to build relationships with any but a few locals who speak English well.
08/03/2007 - By John Rutledge
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Most Muslims worldwide say suicide bombings unjustified
Posted: 8/03/07
Most Muslims worldwide say
suicide bombings unjustifiedBy Omar Sacirbey
Religion News Service
WASHINGTON (RNS)—George Bush and Osama bin Laden are both losing the battle for Muslim hearts and minds, a new report shows.
The Pew Global Attitudes Project, a 47-nation survey, found that rising prosperity in the Islamic world has helped slash support for terrorism and bin Laden but has not changed minds about the United States, which most Muslims still view as a military threat.
08/03/2007 - By John Rutledge
