Archives
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Baptist Briefs
Posted: 4/11/08
Baptist Briefs
Missouri Baptist Convention faces countersuit. The Missouri Baptist Convention could face paying more than $10 million to a developer over land formerly owned by Windermere Baptist Conference Center. William Jester of Springfield, Mo., has filed a counterclaim to legal action convention officials originally filed against him and the conference center in 2006. Jester accuses the original plaintiffs of hurting his business and defaming his character through the lawsuit and publicity associated with it. As part of a debt-restructuring plan to cover costs of expansion, Windermere transferred 943 acres to National City Bank of Cincinnati in 2005. The bank then sold the property to Jester’s Windermere Development Company. The convention sued, seeking to stop all land transactions at Windermere pending the outcome of a separate convention-filed suit against the conference center and four other institutions that removed themselves from the convention’s control in 2000 and 2001. In 2002, the convention filed suit to regain control of the agencies’ boards. In that case, a circuit court judge ruled Windermere had acted legally when its trustees changed the center’s corporate charter to appoint their own successors. The convention plans to appeal that ruling.
Missouri layman proposes peace committee. As battles continue to roil the Missouri Baptist Convention, prominent layman Kent Cochran is proposing a miniature recreation of the Southern Baptist Convention Peace Committee. Cochran wants the convention’s executive board, scheduled to meet April 14-15, to establish a 14-member committee representative of both sides within the embattled convention. “I’d be in favor of everything I could do to promote and bring about peace, but I’m not sure a peace committee is going to be an answer,” convention President Gerald Davidson said, adding that based on his recollection of the SBC Peace Committee in the 1980s, “the peace committee didn’t solve many problems at that time.”
04/11/2008 - By John Rutledge
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EDITORIAL: Ring the bell to end feeding frenzy
Posted: 4/11/08
EDITORIAL:
Ring the bell to end feeding frenzyOne of the problems with feeding frenzies is the invitation never says when the feeding is supposed to finish and the frenzy is supposed to fizzle.
That’s what we’re up against as the mantle of Baptist General Convention of Texas executive leadership passes from Charles Wade to Randel Everett. For the past couple of years or so, the frenzy focused on Wade and his leadership among Texas Baptists, particularly the Executive Board staff. Some criticism was justified; some was not. But the feeding frenzy became a habit. Now, we’re left wondering if blaming, name-calling and finger-pointing have become a reflexive template for corporate behavior. If so, the result will be wholly unfair to Everett, who just got here after many years out of Texas and who inherited, but did not create, the status quo.
So, will the sharks swim away and give Everett room to start fresh? Or will they continue to circle and bite, exacting a price for the simple sin of accepting the job and showing up? We’ll see.
Over and over, the feeding frenzy focused on three issues that need to be laid to rest so Everett can begin with blessing:
04/11/2008 - By John Rutledge
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Faith Digest
Posted: 4/11/08
Faith Digest
Most ministries submit materials to Grassley. Two-thirds of the prominent ministries Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, is investigating are cooperating with requests to provide financial information. Bishop Eddie Long’s New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Ga., said it will provide information April 15, Grassley’s staff announced. A lawyer for Randy and Paula White, who led Without Walls International Church in Tampa, Fla., told Grassley’s office materials had been sent. The senator’s office already had received materials from Joyce Meyer Ministries in Fenton, Mo., and Benny Hinn Ministries of Grapevine. Creflo Dollar Ministries in College Park, Ga., has refused to submit financial records, and Kenneth Copeland Ministries near Fort Worth responded to the request but hasn’t provided sufficient materials. Grassley, top-ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, plans to “continue dialogue” with those two ministries, his office said.
Ten percent of voters wrong about Obama’s religion. One American voter in 10 believes believes Sen. Barack Obama is Muslim, despite the presidential candidate’s frequent descriptions of his Christian faith and a high-profile flap over his former pastor. According to a survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, a majority of voters—53 percent—correctly identify Obama as a Christian. But 16 percent of conservative Republicans, 16 percent of white evangelical Protestants, 19 percent of rural Americans and 10 percent of voters overall believe the Illinois senator is Muslim. Confusion over the candidate’s religion crosses party lines. Fourteen percent of all Republicans, 10 percent of Democrats and 8 percent of independents think he’s Muslim, according to the survey.
04/11/2008 - By John Rutledge
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Veteran pastor sees last five years in for-profit hospital as expansion of ministry
Posted: 4/11/08
George Gaston, vice president of ministry at Baptist Health System of San Antonio, poses with a family who moved into a Habitat for Humanity House built by volunteers from the hospital system. Veteran pastor sees last five years in
for-profit hospital as expansion of ministryBy Karen May
Baptist Health Systems
SAN ANTONIO—George Gaston served 25 years as pastor of Texas Baptist churches. For the last five, he has been vice president of a for-profit hospital system. And Gaston has found the latter role fulfilling—and the fulfillment of God’s calling for this season of his life.
Gaston serves as regional vice president of ministry for Baptist Health System in San Antonio. In that role, he has led efforts to strengthen the Christian mission and pastoral presence in the health system’s five hospitals and various other health-related businesses, as well as its presence in the community.
Gaston offers a prayer, asking God’s blessing on a Habitat for Humanity House built by volunteers from the hospital system. 04/11/2008 - By John Rutledge
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IN FOCUS: Focus on & share the hope of Christ
Posted: 4/11/08
IN FOCUS:
Focus on & share the hope of Christ“Four hundred sixteen children are taken from a West Texas polygamist compound.” “A 48-year-old grandmother and her 5-year-old granddaughter were killed by a gunman when a child’s birthday party turned violent.” “Home sales decline last month, the steepest so far, putting the entire first quarter into a double-digit downturn.”
We are reminded of the sorrow and fear in our world each morning when we read the paper. Our own lives also are interrupted by challenges and heartache at unexpected times. Yet we still are called on to proclaim a message of hope. How can we do this with integrity?
In Colossians 1:27 we read, “Christ in you the hope of glory.” Hope is not what we wish to experience or imagine. Hope doesn’t come from pretending that bad things are not happening. The hope we proclaim is the transformational hope we know in Christ. As Texas Baptists, we must focus continually on the hope of Christ that God makes available to the world through us.
As I begin this journey with you as your executive director, I am filled with hope. I am certainly not looking at the world through rose-tinted glasses, yet I am reminded constantly of the power of Christ.
04/11/2008 - By John Rutledge
