Texas Baptist Forum

Posted: 8/04/06

Texas Baptist Forum

Best candidate available

Regarding the July 24 editorial …

Good word: Character.

Good idea: Call the best person available.

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Letters are welcomed. Send them to marvknox@baptiststandard.com; 250 words maximum.

“This was the worst-case scenario. This was the hardest decision I ever made. The heinousness of a rape is a horrible thing. But I don’t think you should punish a child for the sins of the father.” Gene Herr Pharmacist who was fired by a Denton drugstore after he refused to fill a rape victim's morning-after pill prescription. (The Washington Post/RNS) “Churches have figured out what I have known all along—people are not giving because they don’t have money to give. When the collection plate goes by, they are thinking, ‘I know I should give, but then I can’t pay the light bill.’” Dave Ramsey Christian financial adviser, on why many Christians do not give more generously to their churches (RNS) “People admire what we do, but they would prefer to worship at a Baptist church or a Presbyterian church or that megachurch that’s in their neighborhood. They’ll donate money to us and volunteer to help, but they don’t want to worship with us on Sunday mornings.” Maj. George Hood Community relations officer for the Salvation Army, noting the organization is a church as well as a charity (Scripps Howard News Service/RNS)

08/04/2006 - By John Rutledge

Churches’ failure to target men causes gender gap

Posted: 8/04/06

Churches’ failure to target men causes gender gap

By Kristen Campbell

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Men don’t need pirates in the pews. Then again, the presence of swordfighting swashbucklers might not be the worst thing to happen Sunday morning.

So goes the thinking of David Murrow, author of Why Men Hate Going to Church.

08/04/2006 - By John Rutledge

Computers may draw some men to Christianity

Posted: 8/04/06

Computers may draw some men to Christianity

By G. Jeffrey MacDonald

Religion News Service

REDMOND, Wash. (RNS)—For more than a century, women have outnumbered men in the pews of America’s churches. For almost as long, concerned Christians have wondered where all the men went—and how to get them back.

Now some are seeing glimmers of hope coming from a most unlikely place—flickering computer screens.

08/04/2006 - By John Rutledge

Mexico vision trips slated

Posted: 8/04/06

Mexico vision trips slated

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

The Baptist General Convention of Texas is sponsoring “vision trips” for Texas Baptists interested in ministry to indigenous people groups in Mexico.

Dexton Shores, director of BGCT’s Border/Mexico Missions, will lead a series of trips throughout Mexico starting Aug. 14. Texas Baptist leaders will visit indigenous groups to ascertain ministry possibilities.

08/04/2006 - By John Rutledge

Operation Knit Together warms orphans’ feet & hearts

Posted: 8/04/06

Operation Knit Together
warms orphans’ feet & hearts

By Craig Bird

Baptist Child & Family Services

Operation Knit Together intends to take the pain out of spring for all the orphans in Moldova. But it’s going to take a lot of shoes, socks and volunteers to provide for the residents of the country’s 66 institutions.

In the former Soviet Republic, “when temperatures begin warming in March, the hands and feet of many of the children who live in government institutions remain swollen because of frostbite,” said Dearing Garner, who is leading the effort to raise $250,000 and 90 volunteers to distribute shoes, socks, hats and gloves throughout the tiny Eastern European country.

08/04/2006 - By John Rutledge

Online music store specializes in family-friendly tunes

Posted: 8/04/06

Online music store specializes
in family-friendly tunes

By Steve Woodward

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Imagine rap lyrics without the F-bomb, acid rock lyrics without sex or reggae lyrics without drugs.

Howard Rachinski imagined it all last year, when his then-10-year-old son began to get interested in music.

08/04/2006 - By John Rutledge

On the Move

Posted: 8/04/06

On the Move

• Bill Claiborne has resigned as music and administration pastor at Sharon Church in New Chapel Hill to become a ministry resource representative in the service center of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

• Matt Crawford to First Church in Matador as pastor.

• Brian Edwards to First Church in Hamilton as minister of youth, where he had been interim.

• Ed Ethridge to First Church in New Braunfels as interim pastor.

08/04/2006 - By John Rutledge

Paynter named Texas CLC director

Posted: 8/04/06

Paynter named Texas CLC director

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

DALLAS—The Baptist General Convention of Texas has named Suzii Paynter as director of the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission effective Aug. 15.

Paynter will be the first woman to serve as director of the CLC, historically one of the most high-profile positions in Texas Baptist life. She has served as CLC interim director since March 2.

08/04/2006 - By John Rutledge

TBM, Mexico prepare for disaster

Posted: 8/04/06

TBM, Mexico prepare for disaster

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

JUAREZ, Mexico—The waters in the Gulf of Mexico may have been calm so far this hurricane season, but Texas Baptist Men and Mexican Baptists are preparing for the next natural disaster.

During the recent annual meeting of the National Baptist Convention of Mexico, a team of TBM volunteers trained more than 100 Mexican Baptist leaders from throughout the nation in how to set up and execute a widespread disaster relief ministry.

08/04/2006 - By John Rutledge

Texas Tidbits

Posted: 8/04/06

Texas Tidbits

BGCT contributes to relief in Middle East. The Baptist General Convention of Texas has sent $20,000 to Baptist World Aid to help Israeli and Lebanese Baptists minister to people affected by armed conflict in the region. Texas Baptists can continue to support disaster response ministries by sending funds to BGCT Disaster Relief Fund, P.O. Box 159007, Dallas 75315.

Wayland names associate VP. Elane Seebo, dean of Wayland Baptist University’s Wichita Falls campus, has been named associate vice president of external campuses—a new position at the university. Seebo will be responsible for overseeing operations on the 13 external campuses in the Wayland system with their combined enrollment of about 5,000 students. Seebo is a graduate of Oklahoma State University, holds master’s degrees from Texas Tech University and Pepperdine University and earned a doctorate from the University of North Texas.

08/04/2006 - By John Rutledge

TOGETHER: Texas Baptists not slowed by summer heat

Posted: 8/04/06

TOGETHER:
Texas Baptists not slowed by summer heat

In the midst of one of the hottest summers in recent memory, when many people are simply looking for the coolest place to escape the heat, our Texas Baptist family is deeply and richly involved in kingdom work.

We have sent Texas Baptist World Hunger Offering and disaster response funds to help with the needs of refugees caught in the war zones of the Middle East. Our Baptist brothers and sisters in Lebanon, Syria, Palestine and Israel are seeking to be instruments of grace and peace in the heartbreak that surrounds them, and Texas Baptists are helping them.

Executive Director BGCT Executive Board

Every region has its own politics to deal with, but Jesus followers are called to minister wherever they can. From Lebanon came the appeal for help as the Lebanese Baptists minister to the refugees from southern Lebanon who in previous years sometimes persecuted the Christian believers. How do you ask people to care for people who have abused them? In Jesus’ name. Let all of us who serve the Prince of Peace pray now for peace in this troubled and dangerous land.

There is a different kind of devastation in El Paso—flooding. In the first six months of the year El Paso received one inch of rain. In a few hours on July 31 six inches of rain fell in the city. Pray for the people who are hurting and pray for your Baptist family as they minister to the needs. The BGCT will be glad to forward funds to help in this situation, as well.

08/04/2006 - By John Rutledge

Texas WMU moves toward ‘frontline’ missions involvement

Posted: 8/04/06

Texas WMU moves toward
‘frontline’ missions involvement

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

DALLAS—Mission work worldwide remains the focus of Woman’s Missionary Union of Texas, but how the organization carries that vision out is set to change in the next several years.

The Baptist women’s group soon will be trying to provide more “frontline” missions opportunities than it has in the past in an effort to connect with a younger generation.

08/04/2006 - By John Rutledge