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  Page elected SBC president in upset of establishment

  Posted: 6/23/06

  Page elected SBC president
  in upset of establishment

  By Greg Warner
  

  Associated Baptist Press
  

  GREENSBORO, S.C. (ABP)—In a major populist upset, Frank Page of South Carolina was elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention over two candidates closely tied to the SBC’s fundamentalist power structure.
  

  Page, who described his election as a victory for grassroots Baptists, was elected with 50.48 percent of the vote on a first ballot over two high-profile leaders in the fundamentalist-dominated SBC.

  Frank Page

  06/23/2006 - By John Rutledge

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  Rice urges SBC to support U.S. efforts to spread freedom

  Posted: 6/23/06

  Rice urges SBC to support
  U.S. efforts to spread freedom

  By Robert Marus
  

  Associated Baptist Press
  

  GREENSBORO, N.C. (ABP)—In an address received like a campaign stump speech, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting, exhorting her listeners to support the United States in spreading freedom around the globe.
  

  After a standing ovation upon being introduced—during which one man on the convention floor yelled, “You’ve got my vote!”—Rice touched briefly on her faith background as the daughter and granddaughter of Presbyterian ministers.

  06/23/2006 - By John Rutledge

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  SBC gives IMB first crack at solving its own problems

  Posted: 6/23/06

  SBC gives IMB first crack
  at solving its own problems

  By Marv Knox
  

  Editor
  

  GREENSBORO, N.C.—The Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board will get a chance to resolve its own trustee dispute, despite a plea for outside arbitration.
  

  Trustee Wade Burleson asked SBC messengers to authorize the convention’s Executive Committee to create a special committee to study conflict at the mission board. The panel would have been charged with reporting its findings and proposing steps to “effect reconciliation” among IMB trustees.

  06/23/2006 - By John Rutledge

• Multiple motions referred to SBC Executive Committee

  Posted: 6/23/06

  Multiple motions referred
  to SBC Executive Committee

  By Marv Knox
  

  Editor
  

  GREENSBORO, N.C.—Taking aim at issues ranging from convention executives’ perks, to Calvinism, to pandemics, to what homosexuals should be called, messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting presented a flurry of motions.
  

  In fact, 29 motions proposed during the June 13-14 meeting in Greensboro, N.C., constituted an SBC record, reported Allan Blume, chairman of the convention’s order-of-business committee.

  06/23/2006 - By John Rutledge

• Baptists teetotally—but not unanimously—against alcohol

  Posted: 6/23/06

  Baptists teetotally—but not
  unanimously—against alcohol

  By Trennis Henderson
  

  Western Recorder
  

  GREENSBORO, N.C.—Southern Baptist Convention messengers declared “total opposition to the … consuming of alcoholic beverages,” in a strongly worded resolution on the issue at their annual meeting.
  

  Messengers adopted 15 resolutions presented by the SBC Resolutions Committee on issues ranging from genocide in Darfur, Sudan, to “human species-altering technologies.” But the resolution on alcohol was the only one to spark extended debate.

  06/23/2006 - By John Rutledge

• Election could prove troubling to Calvinists in SBC

  Posted: 6/23/06

  Election could prove troubling to Calvinists in SBC

  By Ken Camp
  

  Managing Editor
  

  When Southern Baptist Convention messengers elected dark-horse candidate Frank Page of South Carolina as president, they not only sent a populist message to the powerbrokers who backed other candidates, but also—at least in the eyes of some observers—may have dealt a blow to resurgent Calvinism in SBC ranks.
  

  Page, pastor of First Baptist Church in Taylors, S.C., wrote a book published six years ago critiquing five-point Calvinism—belief in total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace and perseverance of the saints.

  06/23/2006 - By John Rutledge

• Church’s sports camp scores with Corsicana children

  Posted: 6/23/06

  Church’s sports camp scores
  with Corsicana children

  By Laura Frase
  

  Communications Intern
  

  CORSICANA—Instead of becoming couch potatoes this summer, Northside Baptist Church youth are teaching children the Bible between hoops and high kicks.
  

  Mega Sports Camp offers children from first to sixth grade the opportunity to play a variety of sports and to learn about God at the same time.

  06/23/2006 - By John Rutledge

• Laredo church offers water

  Posted: 6/23/06

  Laredo church offers water

  By Elizabeth Staples
  

  Texas Baptist Communications
  

  LAREDO—Not even 110-degree summer heat can stop United Baptist Church in Laredo from reaching its community.
  

  “We’re always looking for other ways to reach people,” said Pastor Mike Barrera.

  06/23/2006 - By John Rutledge

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  Calvary Waco bridges gap between church, community

  Posted: 6/23/06

  A student leads volunteers and children in a “get to know you” game.

  Calvary Waco bridges gap
  between church, community

  By Laura Frase
  

  Communications Intern
  

  WACO—Sharyn Dowd drives down a street lined with debilitated and deteriorating houses, testifying to the neighborhood’s poverty. But three houses particularly stand out, marked by perfectly clipped lawns, white picket fences, sidewalks and streetlamps.
  

  A woman smiles and waves at her. The woman works a rather rough-looking yard in an attempt to beautify it.

  06/23/2006 - By John Rutledge

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  Well-drilling innovation brings water to Kenyan villages

  Posted: 6/23/06

  Volunteers and local Kenyan water technicians manually drill a bore-hole well.

  Well-drilling innovation
  brings water to Kenyan villages

  By Matthew Waller
  

  Special to the Baptist Standard
  

  RABONDO, Kenya—A Baptist missionary’s new drilling technique has been cutting the cost of water wells in third-world countries from several thousand dollars to $100, all while teaching the people there how to drill for themselves. And now the technology has come to Kenya.
  

  Terry Waller, a missionary to Bolivia through World Concern and Southland Baptist Church of San Angelo, went to Kenya recently at the request of Lifewater International, a Chris-tian organization addressing water issues in developing countries. With five other volunteers, Waller drilled two wells and trained eight local water technicians in Rabondo, a community in western Kenya.

  06/23/2006 - By John Rutledge

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  Offering of Letters addresses hunger

  Posted: 6/23/06

  Offering of Letters addresses hunger

  By Kelly Knox
  

  Special to the Baptist Standard
  

  WACO—Two-thirds of the people in the world live in extreme poverty, and Lake Shore Baptist Church in Waco wants lawmakers to alleviate their suffering.
  

  For 20 years, Lake Shore has teamed up with Bread for the World, a faith-based advocacy organization seeking justice for the world’s hungry and impoverished.

  06/23/2006 - By John Rutledge

• Texan places first at national tournament

  Posted: 6/23/06

  Texan places first at national tournament

  By Elizabeth Staples
  

  Communications Intern
  

  Jessica Jones of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano won first place in the National Invitational Speakers Tournament in Birmingham, Ala., the fourth consecutive year the winner of the Baptist General Convention of Texas Speakers Tournament took top honors at the national level.
  

  Jones represented the BGCT at the national tournament, along with Iwalani Caines from Westside Baptist Church in Killeen, who won first place in the state junior high Bible Drill division, and Jacob Eunice, a member of Northside Baptist Church in Del Rio, who won first in the senior high Bible Drill division.

  06/23/2006 - By John Rutledge