Posted: 11/14/03

CLC speaker: Take faith to school

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

LUBBOCK–Contrary to popular opinion, religious activity remains legal in public schools, a public policy expert told Texas Baptists.

Suzii Paynter, director of citizenship and public policy for the Baptist General Convention of Texas Christian Life Commission, assured a standing-room-only breakout session audience that their children can exercise their faith at school. Paynter spoke during the BGCT annual session in Lubbock Nov. 10.

In its last session, the Texas Legislature mandated one minute of silence during each school day. Although not expressly stated in the law, the time may be used for children to reflect or pray.

While the moment of silence is now required, training teachers how to handle that time remains optional, according to their professional code. The lack of training on how to handle potential religious issues has led teachers to be hesitant and fearful to require the silence, Paynter said.

Paynter, a former schoolteacher, believes there is an urgent need for teacher training, however.

Legislators may realize that when legal action results from the lack of training, she predicted. “The first time someone files a lawsuit in the their district, they will think, 'Maybe we should mandate the training.'”

To combat fear, Texas Baptists should be educated about their rights and their children's rights in schools, Paynter asserted, suggesting informed opinions could curtail many of the outrageous comments made by people on opposing sides of the school prayer debate.

Public schools are legally termed a “limited forum,” meaning school administrators and officials can make rules restricting community access to the school. However, the rules must apply to the entire community and cannot single out religious institutions for exclusion.

Students may read religious books, say prayers and pray with other students at school, according to a CLC handout. They can discuss and write on religious topics. Students may share their faith with other students, distribute religious literature and be released from school for religious education. They may study religion, sing sacred music, meet in religious clubs and wear religious symbols.

When Christian parents or students believe their rights to free expression have been unjustly limited, talk first with school administrators, Paynter suggested. If no resolution can be found, the Christian Life Commission might be able to help each side understand the legal rulings that speak to the issue, she added.

In the past, CLC staff members have helped school officials understand recent laws regarding religion in schools, Paynter said. This does not mean the disputed action will be allowed, but all parties will become more knowledgeable about the topic.

For more information, visit www.bgct.org/clc or contact Paynter at paynter@bgct.org or (512) 473-2288.

Students may read religious books, say prayers and pray with other students at school.

Posted: 11/14/03

Churches advised to make proper
preparation for financial security

By Charles Richardson

Hardin-Simmons University

LUBBOCK–Churches must be wise as foxes and harmless as doves as they deal with money issues, two workshop leaders told Texas Baptists.

Charles Pruett, president of the Baptist Church Loan Corp., and Terry Austin, director of stewardship for the Baptist General Convention of Texas, offered financial suggestions at a workshop held during the BGCT annual session in Lubbock.

The Baptist Church Loan Corp., founded in 1952 to provide a ministry to Texas Baptist churches through a program of church loans, is a not-for-profit corporation and self-supporting partner of the BGCT.

“Without exception,” Pruett suggested, all churches should:

Establish an operating reserve of at least three months of undesignated income.

Create a church budget.

Maintain insurance on church-owned property and liability insurance. “People will sue churches,” he said.

Incorporate. Without incorporation, every member of a congregation is legally liable, Pruett warned.

Austin provided an overview of the United We Build capital fund-raising campaigns.

One advantage of using a consultant-led capital campaign, he said, is to “keep the pastor from becoming a fund raiser.”

Through such a capital campaign, regular budget giving is elevated, new leadership is discovered and a strong spiritual emphasis is delivered, he said.

Posted: 11/14/03

New workshop format draws crowds at BGCT

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

LUBBOCK–Messengers and guests flocked to 60 special-interest sessions during the first day of the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual session Nov. 10.

An average of about 1,200 Texas Baptists packed standing-room-only meetings in Spanish and English that focused on a variety of ministry-related topics each session.

BGCT messengers listen intently during a breakout session offered during the annual session.Eric Guel/BGCT

As part of a major overhaul of the annual session schedule, hallways in the Lubbock Civic Center clamored with people talking about the sessions and thanking BGCT staff for providing helpful information. People often spoke of using the information in their churches, said Don Robinson, BGCT director of convention and meeting planning.

“Almost everyone I visited with enjoyed them,” Robinson said. “The information was useful.”

Most of the breakout sessions were filled to capacity. Some had to be closed due to lack of additional seating.

The new schedule offered breakouts three times on the first day of the convention and once again on the second day.

Total messenger registration was 2,582, with 503 guests, bringing total attendance to 3,085.

Posted: 11/14/03

Historians brush up on Texas Baptist Men

By Charles Richardson

Hardin-Simmons University

LUBBOCK–The Texas Baptist Historical Society presented two church history writing awards and elected officers during its Nov. 10 meeting at Southcrest Baptist Church in Lubbock.

Pam Benson of First Baptist Church of Sabinal received an award for a church history of a congregation with 500 or fewer members for her book, “To God be the Glory: 100 Years, FBC Sabinal.”

J.A. Reynolds of First Baptist Church of Belton received the award for congregations of 1,000 or more for his book, “The Sesquicentennial History of First Baptist Church.”

J.A. Reynolds and Pam Benson

Officers named by acclamation were Carol Holcomb of Belton, president; Van Christian of Comanche, vice president; and Alan Lefever of Dallas, secretary-treasurer.

Society members heard Ken Camp, news director for the Baptist General Convention of Texas and co-author of a 30-year history of Texas Baptist Men, provide historical highlights of Texas Baptist disaster relief since the mid-1960s.

“Texas Baptists' disaster relief mobile unit has become a familiar and comforting sight over the past three decades,” Camp said. “Volunteers staffing the massive 18-wheel tractor-trailer rig have set up its self-contained field kitchen on hurricane-lashed Gulf shorelines and at the perimeter of neighborhoods devastated by tornadoes.”

After Hurricane Beulah's devastation in the lower Rio Grande Valley in 1967, Bob Dixon, state director of the Texas Baptist Royal Ambassadors at the time, was dispatched to South Texas as part of “an overarching BGCT response,” to help people whose lives has been disrupted by disaster, Camp reported. The disaster relief ministry grew from there, and Dixon went on to become executive director of Texas Baptist Men.

By the 1990s, Texas Baptist disaster relief had become worldwide in scope, reaching beyond the Americas to include ministry in the Middle East, several African nations, Eastern Europe and even North Korea, Camp explained.

In February 1992, Texas Baptists directed their attention toward Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, he said. “Texas Baptists personally delivered 170,000 pounds of food and sent a medical team to help inoculate a half-million Russian children.”

In more recent days, Texas Baptists have offered emergency relief for famine victims in North Korea, worked with refugees from Kosovo living in Albania and ministered to survivors of tornadoes in the Oklahoma City area, an earthquake in Turkey and wildfires in Mexico.

They offered relief after Tropical Storm Allison hit Houston in June 2001, when tornadoes hit South Central Texas in the spring of 2002, and when floods damaged 13 Texas counties and fires swept Arizona in the summer of 2002.

Currently, the statewide disaster relief fleet has grown to 37 vehicles “with more to come,” Camp said. These include regional units owned by churches and associations, as well as those owned by Texas Baptist Men.

“For more than 40 years, the BGCT has ministered to hurting people in times of disaster, and for more than 35 years, TBM volunteers have been the front-line troops leading in that response. For now, it appears that partnership seems as secure as anything can be in the current political climate.”

He noted that for three years, Texas Baptist Men has “continued to wrestle with the issue” of how to maintain its relationship with the BGCT while recognizing that many of its volunteers came from churches now aligned with the breakaway Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. Last February, the Texas Baptist Men board affirmed its “unique affiliation and partnership” with the BGCT but also pledged to “officially work” with the SBTC.

“Time will tell how this relationship will work. Long-term, I have my doubts. But for the immediate future, it appears to secure the role of Texas Baptist Men as the first responders in times of natural disaster,” Camp said.

“For now, TBM volunteers represent both BGCT-related and SBTC-related churches to hurting people who know little about the source of the ministry they offer. They understand only that these dedicated men are seeking to follow the example of Jesus by meeting needs where they find them and pointing people to God.”

Posted: 11/14/03

Messengers dialogue face-to-face with BGCT officers in breakout

By Russ Dilday

Buckner News Service

LUBBOCK–Officers of the Baptist General Convention of Texas fielded an array of questions during an open forum at the BGCT annual session in Lubbock Nov. 10.

The dialogue with convention officers was one of more than 60 breakout sessions offered at this year's meeting. The forum, which attracted nearly 120 participants, included both outgoing and newly elected BGCT leadership.

One participant asked if future BGCT planning included “sending our own foreign missionaries.” BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade answered that the new missions support entity of the BGCT, WorldconneX, “does not see itself as a missions-sending agency. We have taken the position of encouraging churches to do missions and not compete with other agencies.”

Another asked why the BGCT was reaching outside Texas with missions dollars and not using SBC agencies to do missions work. Brian Harbour, outgoing chairman of the BGCT Executive Board, explained missions partnerships are facilitated at the request of churches and international entities.

One participant focused on recent disputes at Baylor University by asking, “Why are we renominating someone to the regents who, from what I've read, has caused so much trouble at Baylor?” That was a reference to regent Jaclanel McFarland of Houston, who was investigated by fellow regents after charges of misconduct surfaced although no evidence was found to substantiate those charges.

Outgoing BGCT President Bob Campbell emphasized the inherent freedom in the BGCT nominating process. “We do not stifle dissent because someone won't go along,” he said. “I know (Baylor President) Robert Sloan and I know Jaclanel McFarland, and they can settle their differences as adults.”

Two others urged the convention leaders to promote the Baptist Standard, either by providing subscriptions for every Texas Baptist household or encouraging churches to include the subscriptions in their church budgets.

Another participant asked: “How is the lowered budget affecting the BGCT?”

Newly elected BGCT President Ken Hall, president of Buckner Baptist Benevolences, said the “reality of lowered giving has been in the people not being served through BGCT ministries.”

Using Buckner as an example, Hall noted that during the peak years of BGCT Cooperative Program giving, “We were receiving about $930,000. This coming year, if the budget is met, that contribution is about $730,000. For us to take care of an abused or neglected child, the average cost is about $30,000 annually. That means fewer children cared for, and that's just one institution.

“When dollars are reduced to the BGCT, you are directly reducing value to those Texas Baptists serve,” he said.

Another question: “Will we pull out of the SBC?”

“None of the leadership is planning on withdrawing from the Southern Baptist Convention,” Campbell replied. “As long as your church sends money to the SBC to pass along through the BGCT Cooperative Program, we're going to do that.”

Another participant asked how many churches in Texas are dually aligned with the BGCT and the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.

“We think it's right at 300 right now,” Wade said. “The other convention has, I think, 1,300 churches. We have 5,700, and about 300 are doubly counted or dually aligned. We've lost right at 750 churches that have gone uniquely aligned (with the SBTC). Last year, we lost about 75 churches and started 264 new churches. The future is reaching out to new people who haven't been reached.”

Other questions revolved around the relationship between the BGCT and SBTC and SBC. One pastor said, “I feel like a child of a bad divorce.”

Wade responded: “I didn't ask for this fight. I didn't ask for the missionaries to be told they had to sign stuff or they would be removed from the field. I didn't ask for a new confession of faith designed to push people away. I was always happy for people to be in the SBC and BGCT who didn't agree with me.

“If you're going to use the divorce analogy,” he said, “know that we didn't want anybody to leave, but we couldn't make them stay. We had to stand up and say, 'Here is who Baptists are' or we were going to lose that.”

The dialogue with convention officers was one of more than 60 breakout sessions offered at this year's meeting.

Posted: 11/14/03

BGCT session: Parenting education bootcamp

By Teresa Young

Wayland Baptist University

LUBBOCK–Successful parenting experiences hinge primarily on several key principles, according to leaders of a “Parenting Education Bootcamp” held in conjunction with the Baptist General Convention of Texas' annual session in Lubbock.

Lane Powell, assistant chairwoman of the human development and family studies department at Texas Tech University, and her husband, Bob Powell, supervisor of the Clinical Pastoral Education program at Covenant Medical Center in Lubbock, presented practical tips for successful parenting using five key principles.

Parent education in churches should be an ongoing effort rather than simply an occasional weekend retreat, she said, arguing that most parenting principles can be incorporated into the church's regular programs with ease.

The first principle is to emphasize strong marital relationships. Mrs. Powell encouraged churches to make marriage enrichment activities a regular part of their scheduling to build a solid foundation for healthy parenting.

The church should help couples spend time in dialogue about issues affecting their marriage, including their own past experiences with family dynamics and their strengths and weaknesses, specifically in child rearing, she said.

“Different parents have different skills with different ages of children,” her husband added. “For many people, the only school they've received on parenting is their family of origin. That's all they know.”

Second, the Powells urged parents to focus more on affirmation and encouragement in relational interaction. “If we turn our attitude around to one that's more positive, we'll come out ahead in parenting,” Mrs. Powell said. “We often push children away from us by being too rigid in our expectations.”

Their third principle for successful parenting is to understand the developmental stages of children when responding to or guiding their behaviors. Realize the child's limitations and react accordingly, with sensitivity to the child's individual needs, they counseled.

Fourth, the Powells encouraged parents to move away from the trend in today's society to do everything for children, instead providing opportunities for everyone to take responsibility for significant tasks.

The final principle is to establish appropriate and flexible structure and boundaries in relation to the child's development stage. Although boundaries commonly manifest in punishment, the couple urged workshop participants to think of boundaries more as healthy structures in which to grow and mature into healthy adults.

Posted: 11/14/03

Assembly of God puppetmaker lends a hand at Baptist convention

By Craig Bird

Texas Baptist Communications

LUBBOCK–When it seems there is no way, God will make a way. And sometimes God will make a puppet–or at least send a puppet maker.

At least, that's the way Kelli Watson sees it.

Which is why the Plainview woman showed up at the BGCT annual session in Lubbock, even though she attends an Assembly of God church. She grew up in a Baptist church and graduated from Wayland Baptist University.

When lingering health problems prevented Watson from going on a mission trip to Haiti last summer, she sent four surrogates in her place. Unlike the rest of the volunteers, the puppets Watson handcrafted all stayed behind to continue helping Mission of Hope share the gospel with children in a town just outside Port Au Prince.

Kelli Watson and a friend from her church show off some of the puppets Watson makes for use in churches and in missions settings. The puppets feature unrealistic skin colors as a means to make them cross racial boundaries.

“I'm kind of a child of puppet ministry. My youth group really got into it … in the 1980s,” she said. “And I kept doing puppets until a few years ago when I got rheumatoid arthritis in my wrists. Even then, I really missed it.”

An article about a missionary in Vietnam who was allowed to witness in schools through puppets planted the idea that she might could buy puppets for other missionaries to use.

But she was shocked to learn how expensive puppets are. So when her daughter asked her if she would make a puppet for the trip to Haiti, inspiration matched up with motivation. “It took me about four days to work out the design and pattern for the first one. Now it takes me about three hours to make one.”

She uses donated material whenever possible–“giving new life to all those double knit scraps your grandmother has in her closet,” she said.

Those fabric scraps also impact the look of the puppets.

“I was looking for something that could be used with all cultures and ethnic groups, so my puppets don't have skin tones,” she said. “I tend to give them blue skins whenever I can.”

It was her dream to send puppets to mission fields around the world that landed her in Lubbock.

“I called, and there was no exhibit space available, but the BGCT folks said I should just come down and see who I could meet.”

She offers puppets free to missionaries upon request and will sell to churches and individuals at significantly below standard retail rates. All the proceeds from her church sales go to pay shipping costs for missionaries and to buy more supplies.

Watson may be contacted through e-mail at watsons@nts-online.net.

Posted: 11/14/03

Texas WMU executive board reports affirm core values

By Teresa Young

Wayland Baptist University

LUBBOCK–Texas Baptists' desire for more hands-on missions opportunities is a core objective of Texas Woman's Missionary Union, according to the organization's executive director. And it's a desire the new WorldconneX network holds the promise of helping them fulfill, she added.

The Texas WMU board of directors heard reports affirming the mission organization's core objectives during its Nov. 8 meeting in Lubbock. In her report to the board, Executive Director Carolyn Porterfield shared her excitement at seeing WMU's guiding objectives being met across the state.

“We reaffirmed our core values–the lordship of Christ, the Bible, prayer, personal involvement with missions and mission education,” Porterfield said.

Four guiding objectives–providing mission opportunities, providing missions education, developing missions leadership and promoting missions support–constantly provide challenges and rewards across the state and around the world, she added.

Providing missions education through multiple methods of delivery is challenging, given the various languages needed, she reported. But technology is making those avenues easier, she added, touting four websites supported by Texas WMU that help provide missions education and resources in multiple languages.

Raising funds to support mission endeavors remains a challenge as well, she said.

The new WorldconneX missions network will help make some of these objectives easier to meet by connecting resources with needs worldwide, Porterfield predicted.

The board approved a recommendation from the Hispanic WMU Fellowship to form a partnership with Baptist women in Mexico, specifically in support of a retirement home supported solely by that country's WMU.

In other business, the WMU board approved three new area directors–Kay Stiles of Wheeler, Lois Robinette of Ennis and Yvonne Fansler of League City. A motion from the executive committee to amend the bylaws to include a board member from the Christian Women's Job Corps Advisory Council was approved as well. The board also recognized outgoing board members Earl Ann Bumpus of Mineral Wells and Deborah Henke of Fredericksburg.

Posted: 11/14/03

Worship should unite, professor says

By Teresa Young

Wayland Baptist University

LUBBOCK–Successful worship requires churches to rethink their focus, their schedule and their communities of believers, according to a Texas Baptist educator.

Clell Wright, chairman of the church music department at Hardin-Simmons University, led a workshop on “Rethinking Blended Worship” during the Baptist General Convention of Texas' annual session in Lubbock.

He encouraged participants to approach worship as an avenue to celebrate diversity in the church as a global community: “Worship, the adoration and praise of God our Father, should be the one thing in our churches that unites us, but it has been a dividing wedge.”

Hardin-Simmons professor Clell Wright discusses how to make blended worship a unifying force rather than a divisive force.

Wright advocated three areas of rethinking for churches concerning worship.

The first is in the worship focus.

“We've tried to meet everyone's needs, and we often look at whether worship is successful because of what we get out of it,” he noted. “But worship is not about us or how it makes us feel; it is entirely about honoring God.”

Churches often become bogged down in a set order of service that does not always draw the congregation into worship, he warned. A service using music and Scripture to bring worshippers into a time of increasing introspection and confession helps set the tone for the sermon and encourage a worshipful service, he suggested.

Embracing the diversity of the global community of believers means often incorporating worship songs from other countries, noting that when congregations worship, their voices are joining with those who have gone before and those who will follow in a collective worship voice, the professor said.

Using a sample worship service from Logsdon School of Theology in Abilene, Wright presented examples of blending traditional and contemporary songs together for worship segments. For example, the traditional hymn “How Great Thou Art” was paired with the more contemporary “I Exalt Thee” because the two share a similar idea and complement one another, allowing for a continuation and flow of ideas in worship.

Posted: 11/14/03

Baptist Briefs

LifeWay looks to 'Left Behind.' LifeWay Christian Resources is partnering with creators of the popular "Left Behind" series to help individuals and churches use the apocalyptic thrillers as tools to share the gospel. The evangelistic strategy, called "Share Eternity with Someone Today," is available to download for free at LifeWay.com. The website-based campaign, which runs through December, is aimed at equipping readers of the "Left Behind" fiction series to use the novels as discussion starters for sharing their faith in Christ.

Posted: 11/14/03

Buckner urgently needs help to process shoes

Officials with Buckner Orphan Care International have issued an urgent plea for volunteers to sort and prepare thousands of donated shoes for shipment to children around the world.

Boxes and boxes of donated shoes are stacked high and deep in Buckner's Dallas warehouse. Volunteers of all ages are needed to help sort and repack the shoes for shipment to children around the world.

The plea comes amid a record outpouring of shoes donated to Shoes for Orphan Souls from all 50 states. Nearly 220,000 pairs of new shoes and thousands of pairs of socks have flooded into Buckner's warehouses in Dallas, according to Jeff Jones, director of program development.

While Buckner has managed to ship shoes to places in the world where cold weather is beginning to set in, Jones said he is desperate to complete the job of sorting thousands of shoes that have arrived since July.

“We're in desperate need for volunteers to process these shoes,” he said. “We're now set up in our new warehouse, and we probably still have about 100,000 pairs of shoes needing to be processed.”

Sorting shoes is a “perfect volunteer opportunity for families, friends, Sunday School classes, church groups, civic organizations, high school groups, just about anyone,” he said.

Anyone interested in helping may contact Carla Robertson at (469) 877-4504 or Andrew Knight at (214) 914-1676.

Posted: 11/14/03