Archives
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Community rehab volunteers seek to show ‘what the church ought to be’_71204
Posted: 7/09/04
Volunteers from churches in Springtown, Keller and DeLeon join members of First Baptist Church in Comanche in painting and renovating homes for unchurched, low-income residents in their communities. It's part of Community Rehab, a ministry launched by the Comanche church. Community rehab volunteers seek to
show 'what the church ought to be'By Janelle Bagci
Staff Writer
COMANCHE–Five years ago, members of First Baptist Church in Comanche launched a community project repairing homes in their town. This year, the project spread to surrounding counties, and the volunteers–mostly teenagers–reconstructed 17 homes.
07/09/2004 - By John Rutledge
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EDITORIAL: Paradox strengthens evangelism_71204
Posted: 7/09/04
EDITORIAL:
Paradox strengthens evangelismDo you ever watch siblings and wonder, “How in the world did those people grow up in the same home, much less fall out of the same family tree?”
That's how I feel about Baptists. Much of the time, we're like mismatched sisters and brothers. We're born of the same stock, but we bear polar-opposite personalities. We carry the same name, but we sometimes sound like strangers.
We've been this way almost from the beginning–nearly four centuries, church historian Bill Leonard says. (See page 10.) More than any other faith group, Baptists have embraced paradoxical tendencies. We include in our ranks contradictory positions and perspectives on just about every item in the spiritual catalog except the notions that we're congregationalists and the church should be made up of Christian believers.
Does someone who preaches the need for repentance reflect the gospel more accurately than someone who feeds the hungry and houses the homeless? 07/09/2004 - By John Rutledge
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EDITORIAL: Texas earns a big, fat F_71204
Posted: 7/09/04
EDITORIAL:
Texas earns a big, fat FThe U.S. Census Bureau has released another embarrassing statistic: Texas ranks last in the percentage of adults who have received high school diplomas.
Only 77 percent of Texans age 25 and older have graduated from high school, according to an Associated Press report. That compares to a national average of 85 percent. This is the second year in a row Texas has trailed the rest of the states. A decade ago, Texas ranked 39th, when it also posted a 77 percent graduation rate. On the whole, U.S. graduation rates are improving.
The primary reason for Texas' decline is its failure to help Hispanics progress through the educational system. The Census Bureau report revealed only about half of Texas' 4.3 million Hispanics age 25 and up have earned high school diplomas. Meanwhile, Hispanics are the state's fastest-growing population. So, the overall rate will continue to slide if a greater percentage of Hispanics don't graduate.
We need to demand that the Legislature pass and the governor sign a school-finance bill that is fair to all Texans, raises the graduation rate and doesn't sleep with the devil by funding education through expansion of gambling. 07/09/2004 - By John Rutledge
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ETBU enters partnership with Chinese university, plans 2005 conference_71204
Posted: 7/09/04
East Texas Baptist University Vice President for Academic Affairs Paul Sorrels listens to guide Vivian Fan explain the history of the Great Wall. (Jerry Summers Photo) ETBU enters partnership with Chinese
university, plans 2005 conferenceMARSHALL–East Texas Baptist University and Lanzhou University of Technology in Lanzhou, China, created a partnership after a visit by ETBU officials to China.
The partnership will produce an academic conference in Lanzhou next summer involving faculty from ETBU and other Texas universities and Chinese scholars who will present papers in English, said Jerry Summers, history professor at ETBU.
Paul Sorrels, ETBU vice president for academic affairs, signed the agreement, which also allows the exchange of students and faculty between the two universities.
East Texas Baptist University Vice President for Academic Affairs Paul Sorrels and Lanzhou University of Technology Vice President Wang Zhiping, sign an agreement of educational cooperation and scholarly exchange between ETBU and the Chinese university. 07/09/2004 - By John Rutledge
