Posted: 9/5/03

TOGETHER:
Listen & respond to 'God's call'

In the parsonage where I grew up, our family's practice was to pray before every meal. One evening, the phone rang just as we sat down to eat. My brother, Jim, picked up the receiver and answered, “Our dear Heavenly Father … .” I don't know who was more surprised, the caller or my brother.

But what if God did call us? How would we respond? The Scriptures are full of moments in men's and women's lives when God called. From Adam to Abraham, Moses to Mary, God personally called his people.

God has called people to share the gospel in word and deed.

God wants all to hear and be saved because he loves us and wants to spend eternity with us. But the only way for anyone to be saved is to place hope and trust in Jesus Christ. If we could be saved in any other way, Jesus would not have had to die on the cross. He prayed the night before he died: “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39). There was and is no other way for God to accomplish the redemption of the human heart.

Our Week of Prayer for Texas Missions is Sept. 14-21. Every year, Woman's Missionary Union of Texas lays before our churches the needs of Texans and others who need to know God loves them and wants to spend eternity with them.

This year's theme is: “Hello, God is calling. Are you listening to me? Really listening?” (Matthew 11:15).

I hope your church and your Sunday School classes will pray for those who need Christ and those who are answering God's call to share the gospel with them.

When we pray for people and ask God to use us in reaching out to them, two things usually happen. We begin to sense God calling us to do some particular act of service and witness. And we want to give generously to help missionaries do what God has called them to do.

The Mary Hill Davis Offering is Texas Baptists' way of responding annually to the needs of those who need God's touch.

There are large-ticket items like assisting in church starting to meet the challenge of 10 million unchurched Texans and another 1.7 million people who are coming to Texas over the next five years.

There are small-ticket items like assisting Baptist college students who serve in mission projects and providing scholarship funds to help ethnic students attend Texas Baptist schools.

There are funds to help minister to prisoners and their families and to provide youth camps where students respond eagerly to the gospel.

When I read the description of the 64 ministries that this offering helps to support, and when I hear the testimonies of those whose lives have been changed forever, I want to urge you and all those you know to give sacrificially to help us reach our goal of $5.1 million.

Every dollar given will help draw someone to Christ.

Think about what your church gave last year to the Mary Hill Davis Offering. Encourage your church family to go significantly beyond that total this year.

The lives and eternal destiny of people God wants to save hang in the balance.

We are loved.

Posted: 9/5/03

Seven in 10 U.S. children still live with two parents

By Mark Wingfield

Managing Editor

WASHINGTON–Despite the public perception that single-parent homes are becoming the norm in America, seven out of 10 children under the age of 18 still live in two-parent homes, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

However, 30 percent of America's children live with one parent, most often a mother. Children living in single-parent homes are five times more likely to live with their mothers than with their fathers, according to Census data.

The statistics are drawn from a new Census Bureau report, “Children's Living Arrangements and Characteristics,” released this summer.

The report notes that not all children listed as living in single-parent homes actually live in homes where only one adult is present. The Census data does not fully capture data on children living in a home with a parent and a non-married partner, for example.

The percentage of children living at home with two parents has decreased slightly over the last decade, to 69 percent in 2002 from 73 percent in 1991.

Children who did not live with two parents in 2002 were most likely to live with a single mother. Twenty-three percent of all U.S. children lived with single mothers, compared to 5 percent who lived with single fathers.

In 2002, African-American children were 2.65 times more likely to live in single-parent households than Anglo children. That gap has increased slightly over the last decade. In 1991, African-American children were 2.57 times more likely than Anglo children to live in single-parent families.

In 2002, 53 percent of African-American children lived in single-parent families (up from 49.1 percent), compared to 20 percent of Anglo children (up from 19.1 percent), 30 percent of Hispanic children (down from 31.1 percent) and 15 percent of Asian children.

Children of all races who live with a single father are significantly more likely to live in a household with a cohabiting partner than children living with single mothers.

In 2002, 8 percent of U.S. children (5.6 million) lived in households with at least one grandparent present. In the majority of these cases, a parent also was present even if the grandparent owned or rented the home.

However, the 118,000 children living with grandparents but not with parents were twice as likely to live below the poverty level.

Among children with two parents in the home, 97 percent had at least one parent active in the labor force, and 62 percent had two parents active in the labor force.

Stay-at-home mothers were 56 times more prevalent than stay-at-home dads, although 1.5 million children lived in households with stay-at-home dads. Only a fourth of those dads, however, said they were at home primarily to care for the family.

In 2002, 13 million U.S. children lived in households with stay-at-home mothers. That's 18 percent of children overall and 31 percent of two-parent households.

Nationwide, 30 percent of children lived in households with family incomes below $30,000 annually, and 29 percent lived in households with family incomes of at least $75,000. Nearly half of all children lived in households with family incomes of $50,000 or more.

Five percent of children lived in public housing, and 11 percent received food stamps.

Children living in single-parent homes were twice as likely as children in two-parent homes to be sustained by family incomes of less than $30,000.

Nationally, 88 percent of all children had health-insurance coverage, compared with 91 percent of children living with two parents, 86 percent of those with single mothers and 82 percent of those with single fathers.

These statistics were drawn from the Annual Demographic Supplement to the Current Population Survey, which uses Census 2000 as the base for its sample.

Posted: 9/5/03

FROM DESPAIR TO DIPLOMA:
UMHB student walks a new road now

By Miranda Bradley

Texas Baptist Children's Home & Family Services

BELTON–Crystal Caswell considers herself one of the least likely people ever to make it to college this fall.

Not only has she entered the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor with more than $10,000 in scholarship assistance, she has a new perspective on life, thanks to the ministry of another Baptist agency just down I-35 in Round Rock.

One of eight children born to a drug-addicted mother and an alcoholic father, Caswell often was beaten for simple things. By the time she was 9, she said, she prayed for Child Protective Services to take her and her siblings away from their abusive home.

“I just got tired of being hit for dropping an empty cup on the floor or leaving the refrigerator door open,” she said.

Finally, she was placed in foster care for three years–one and one-half years at one home, and then one and one-half years at her next home, where later she was adopted.

The foster mother who adopted her put up an outward front of love, she said, but only to gain approval for the adoption papers. “As soon as those papers were signed, she made it clear she didn't like me. She even told me she didn't want me; she just wanted my brothers.”

Caswell began concentrating heavily on schoolwork to avoid confrontations with her new mother, sometimes even skipping meals so she wouldn't have to eat dinner with her. Around her sophomore year, the abuse at her home caused even that crutch to crumble. She failed her 10th grade year, causing her to repeat it the following fall.

Throughout her three-year stay with her adopted mother, Caswell ran away dozens of times, trying to avoid the pain and confusion of her home life.

“The cops knew me very well, not because I was destructive or anything, but because I ran away so much,” she said. “I just didn't want to be where someone didn't want me.”

Finally, Caswell decided she would run and way and never come back. She packed her bag and hit the road, eventually stopping to call the runaway hotline. After a short stay in temporary housing, she was brought to Texas Baptist Children's Home, a ministry supported partially through gifts to the Baptist General Convention of Texas Cooperative Program.

She was 16 years old and on the brink of security for the first time in her life.

“I was a little scared at first,” she recalled. “That went away when I met my house pop. That day I went to sleep because I was so tired, and I woke up with five faces standing over me.”

Her new brothers and sisters wanted to meet the addition to their family. One of them was Selinia, Caswell's new roommate, now her close friend.

The change of scenery brought a change of heart as well.

“At first, I just thought God was not on my side,” she said. During family devotions, she huddled in a corner, rolling her eyes. Now, she reads the Bible daily, thanks to the influence of a youth conference she attended as a junior.

“It just opened up everything for me. Now, instead of blaming (God), I'm thanking him for helping me through everything I've been through.”

Now she has left the children's home for a new chapter in her life, as a freshman at UMHB, also a BGCT institution.

She still can't believe she received more than enough scholarship assistance to cover her tuition and books for the first year.

“Before I came here, college was something I thought was only a dream,” she said. “It would never happen to me. Now, it's real. I'm going to college.”

Unfortunately, she has no false hopes of support from her adopted mother or her biological mother. Recently, she contacted her biological mother out of curiosity. It was a bitterly disappointing moment.

“She didn't even remember me,” Caswell reported. “When I told her I was going to college, she sounded surprised.”

Without the help of Texas Baptists, Caswell believes she certainly would have followed her mother's path.

“If I hadn't come to TBCH, I know I would be strung out on some sort of drugs now,” she said. “I'm very thankful I came here. It saved my life.”

In a strange twist of fate, the girl who once could care less for other people hopes to make caring for them her life's work. At UMHB, she plans to study nursing.

“I like making people smile,” she said. “It's important to me to take care of people because so many people here have taken care of me.”

Posted: 9/5/03

Waco church start delivers real love

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

WACO–The Temple of Deliverance and Development started following a vision from God, and now the temple is filled with God's people, the pastor said.

Building on a “keep it real” atmosphere where members come as they are, the Waco church has grown steadily to serve 50 members and routinely draws about 35 people for Sunday worship.

The congregation's warmth invites people of different ethnicities and backgrounds, said Taronica Weaver, a church member and the pastor's sister. Each visitor is welcomed with a hug and an “I love you,” she added.

Pastor Larrye Weaver's plainspoken manner of teaching is easy for members to understand and relate to, according to Sheila Waits, a church member.

“He just breaks it down,” Waits said. “He doesn't use big words like other preachers. He's just a down-to-earth preacher.”

Weaver said he delivers “motivational and inspirational” sermons as he moves among the congregation “like Jesus did.”

The church recently launched a Sunday School program to help members develop their faith. The new venture represents an effort to fulfill the second half of the church's name.

“Deliverance is what Jesus did for us on Calvary,” the third-generation pastor said. “The development part is what needs to happen on a daily basis.”

Church members regularly hold revivals at a nearby apartment complex known for drug problems and catering to the low-income “down and out,” Taronica Weaver said. Church members are taking the gospel to the residents with the purpose of bringing hope and changing lives.

The church also is consistently involved in community projects, volunteering the time to raise money for local causes.

As a new church start, Temple of Deliverance and Development receives funds from the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas missions.

Pastor Weaver credits the church's quick growth and ministry to following God's will. “God ordained” the church to move in such a manner, he said.

“Anytime God tells you to move and you move, amazing things happen,” Weaver emphasized.

Posted: 9/5/03

College orientation isn't just for students any more

By Teresa Young

Wayland Baptist University

PLAINVIEW–As soon as Pam and Don Trotter of Littlefield arrived on the Wayland Baptist University campus a few years back to move their son Clay into his dorm room, Mrs. Trotter began to dread the upcoming Saturday afternoon.

That's when the “Big Bye-Bye” is scheduled, the formal time for parents and new students to make the break that signals a new phase in life for both parents and children.

Painful though it was, however, the event was not nearly as excruciating as it could have been, Mrs. Trotter said, thanks to a carefully crafted orientation program.

“It made the transition easier, even though I was crying my eyes out,” she recalled.

This year, the Trotters were back on campus to deliver their last child, Bryan, to his freshman year. While still emotional, the time was not nearly as difficult, Mrs. Trotter said.

Dale and Beverly Thurman of Littlefield agreed. The ease they found in leaving Ryan, their second child to attend Wayland, was created in part by the orientation program for parents, they said.

“Here, you're a family,” Thurman explained. “The staff is so warm, and they know our students by name.”

Wayland's freshman orientation weekend, called Koinonia after the Greek word for fellowship, features a variety of activities designed to help new students bond with one another and with a select group of upperclassmen as they ease into the college experience.

But orientation at Wayland offers a track for parents as well.

“Koinonia is designed to have parents and students together. Most of the questions come from parents at the beginning,” explained Brian McClenagan, a Wayland counselor. “As the day moves on, we ease the parents and students apart. By the evening time, the students are doing one thing, and the parents are off doing something else.”

The events are designed to introduce parents to the Wayland family of administrators, faculty and staff and familiarize them with the campus so that they feel more at ease leaving a son or daughter. By the time the goodbyes come on Saturday, most parents are comfortable with the break.

“Hopefully by this time, the parents have seen that they're leaving their child in a good place and that their students are almost ready for parents to leave,” McClenagan said. “Parents view college as an investment, and it's nice to know that they're getting their money's worth–or more. Orientation is our chance to help them feel like they've made the right decision.”

The reassurance offered through orientation definitely helped Frank and Sandy Drury of Lubbock, who brought their only daughter, Brianne, to Wayland this year. They arrived on Friday and stayed for the parents' portion of orientation, which includes information sessions, a Friday night mixer and a breakfast for parents at the home of Wayland President Paul Armes and his wife, Duanea. Facing their first experience leaving a student at college, the Drurys found the process eased by the activities.

“The students really made Brianne feel welcome. It's personal, and everyone here is so helpful and available,” Drury said. “You get to meet people and get to know other folks, and that takes a lot of the anxiety out.”

After the goodbyes, Wayland officials urge parents to check in occasionally with their children but allow room for the student to be independent and make friends. Students are encouraged to stay on campus for at least the first three weekends, preferably until fall break.

“That initial period, from when they leave to when they come home for the first time, is critical,” McClenegan said. “That's a great time of growth.”

McClenagan said parents should be aware, too, that when the first visit back home does come, the parents may be in for an awakening.

“They'll be different,” he said. “Parents shouldn't get their feelings hurt if the student gets home on Friday, does their laundry and can't wait to get back to school. That's a good sign.”

Posted: 9/5/03

300 years later, Wesley influences American religion

By Kevin Eckstrom

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)–Four years before his death in 1791, John Wesley was concerned about his Methodist followers.

“I still think that when the Methodists leave the church,” he worried in 1787, “God will leave them.”

When he started preaching in 1739, Wesley's only mission was to revive the Church of England, not start a new church. But on the family tree of American churches, several major branches find their roots in Wesley's 18th century movement.

Wesley's most direct descendants are the 10 million members of the United Methodist Church. That's not counting nearly 4 million members of churches like the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the 70 million members of the World Methodist Council or still millions more in the Salvation Army, the Wesleyan churches, the Church of the Nazarene or countless Holiness churches.

Add to that the 625 million Pentecostals around the world who claim Wesley as a spiritual forbear and you have the second largest Christian movement in the world, outpaced only by the Roman Catholic Church.

Now, 300 years after his birth on June 17, 1703, perhaps no one would be more surprised by Wesley's enduring influence–and the host of churches he fathered–than Wesley himself.

“Certainly he would be one of the three most influential Christian leaders as far as his effects on American religious life,” said Vinson Synan, dean of the School of Divinity at Regent University and author of “The Century of the Holy Spirit: 100 Years of Pentecostal and Charismatic Renewal.”

It's an ironic mantle to place on someone who spent only 18 months in the American Colonies, during a disastrous stint as a missionary to Georgia from 1735 to 1737.

Yet Wesley's theological DNA is deeply imprinted on American religion, from Billy Graham revivals and the 41 percent of Americans who claim to be “born again” to the hospitals, universities and social movements that were founded to usher in Wesley's era of social holiness.

By the mid-1800s, fueled by frontier conversions, the Methodists were the largest Christian group in the United States. Methodists pioneered circuit riders and a sophisticated “class meeting” system that relied on lay leaders rather than ordained professionals. Wesley's gospel found particular appeal among the poor, illiterate and uneducated.

“The fact that Wesley didn't assume that what you were born into was what you had to be is really a new patent on religion that people take for granted today,” said Martin Marty, the dean of American church historians, who teaches at the University of Chicago.

Methodists established a wide swath of territory from Baltimore to Kansas, where they became the typical Protestant church. Along the way, they started such educational institutions as Emory, Duke, Boston University and Northwestern while championing abolition, prohibition and eventually civil rights.

Toward the end of the 19th century, some of Wesley's followers left to form Holiness churches in an effort to recover the old-time religion of emotional conversion. That split gave birth to the Nazarenes and the Salvation Army, who shed some of Wesley's cherished sacramental worship.

Then, between 1900 and 1920, another split gave birth to the Pentecostals, who wanted still more emotion and spirit-filled worship.

Wesley was born the 15th of 19 children in 1703 to an Anglican clergyman. At 6, he was rescued from a rectory fire–“a brand plucked from the burning,” as his mother later said–in Epworth, England.

He entered Oxford at 17 and with his brother, Charles, founded a Bible club in 1729 that was derided by classmates. “The one charge then advanced against them was that they were 'righteous overmuch'; that they were abundantly too scrupulous and too strict,” Wesley later wrote.

Their critics labeled them “Methodists” for their strict adherence to prayer and pious living. Wesley originally shunned the name but later adopted it as his own.

In 1735, he set off to convert the Indians in Georgia, an effort Wesley later admitted was a failure. His high-church Anglicanism found few friends in Savannah, and he was run out of town in 1738 after an unsuccessful attempt to woo young Sophy Hopkey.

Back in England, Wesley began to attend Moravian meetings. Within three months, he had his most important conversion experience during a meeting on Aldersgate Street in London.

“I felt my heart strangely warmed,” he wrote in his journals. “I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”

The strange warming of Wesley's heart convinced him of the need for a personal conversion, an impulse that still defines evangelical Christianity.

Wesley launched a major tour of England, rising every day at 4 a.m. to preach to workers at 5 a.m. in fields and factories. Riding mostly on horseback, he preached 40,000 sermons and logged nearly 250,000 miles around Britain.

He and his brother forged a partnership that eventually frayed.

Charles was a prolific hymn writer, penning the words to “Hark the Herald Angels Sing,” “O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing” and hundreds of others.

The American Revolution drove the church and the brothers apart.

When the war severed relations across the Atlantic, John Wesley appointed leaders to shepherd the fledgling U.S. church. Charles disagreed with the decision and said many of his brother's appointments were unqualified.

Gradually, the American church grew to resent Wesley's meddling from England.

Throughout his life, John Wesley was unlucky in love. His Georgia wooing had ended badly. He married his wife, Mary, in 1751 over his brother's objections. After a stormy marriage and a 10-year separation, she died in 1781 while her husband was away. His journals noted that he missed her funeral and he “was not informed of it till a day or two after.”

“Here's a man who (at) the heart of his message is love, loving God, and loving neighbor … who was just simply incapable of developing an intimate loving relationship with a woman,” said Richard Heitzenrater, a Wesley scholar at Duke Divinity School.

By all accounts, he was not the warm and cuddly type. Roy Hattersley, author of the new “The Life of John Wesley,” described him as “authoritarian, humorless and didactic.”

Posted: 9/5/03

Volunteers glean harvest for the poor, help for farmer

By Jo Gray

Special to the Standard

FORESTBURG–A Texas fruit grower and a group of Baptist volunteers combined to create a bountiful harvest for the poor of Montague County this summer.

Doug Reynolds, owner of an apple orchard near Forestburg, knew the gala apples left hanging on his trees did not meet the standards required for selling to the public. The edible apples would fall off and rot unless someone picked them.

A group of senior citizens from the nearby community of Saint Jo rose to the challenge, volunteering to glean the apples left in the fields. Gleaning dates back to the Old Testament times, when crops that otherwise would be wasted were gathered by the poor.

The apple gleaning was organized by Ralph Goins, state director of the Society of Saint Andrew. Formed in 1979 by two ministers, the society is a Christian ministry dedicated to meeting physical and spiritual need. The non-denominational organization has as its goal to feed many on a small budget.

A Dallas office opened in 1994, and Goins was hired as director. He gave up a high-paying corporate job to work at what he felt God wanted him to do, he said.

“I gave up the corporate job and the Lexus,” he said with a smile. “I now drive a Chevrolet truck and am away from home a lot, speaking to organizations and churches, getting people involved in the gleanings.”

The recipient of the recent apple gleaning in Montague County was the Bowie Baptist Mission. The mission provides food for those who need it. The pickup load of fresh apples will go a long way toward providing healthier options for many parents whose children don't always have balanced diets.

Many area churches collect non-perishable food items for the mission, but it is rare to have fresh fruits and vegetables, volunteers said.

Some of the other crops gleaned by the volunteers include sweet potatoes, watermelons and potatoes.

Bags for the produce are obtained without charge from the manufacturer. The ones used for packaging the apples were an over-run for an order from an onion producer.

“The printing on the bag doesn't matter,” Goins said. “We only had to pay the cost of the freight to get the bags.”

Volunteers Doris Coates, Gayle Edwards and Billie Beane gather apples for the Bowie Baptist Mission.

Pointing out that every penny saved is important, Goins said he recently has established a club of women volunteers to assist in the gleaning program.

The women, known as the Way of Ruth, collect and sell material items, Goins said. “Some of the items are obtained from garage sales. They may be collectibles or antiques.” The women try to get items donated or buy them at a very low price, and then they then sell them for a higher price.

Proceeds from the women's group help support the Society of Saint Andrew.

Goins hopes other growers will learn about the gleanings and donate damaged crops like Reynolds did.

“We were in Jacksboro where an apple orchard had been damaged by late frost and hail,” Goins said. “It was there we learned about (Reynolds') orchard. A phone call was made, and a time was arranged.”

Reynolds said he hopes to be able to use the service of the gleaners next year. It not only helps those less fortunate, but having someone pick the defective apples assisted him in what would have been a big cleanup job.

More information about the gleaning program may be found at www.endhunger.org or by calling Goins at (972) 253-4559.

Posted: 9/5/03

On the Move

Hollie Atkinson to First Church in Daingerfield as intentional interim pastor.

Seth Carnes to Southside Church in Brownwood as minister of youth.

Ricky Clabaugh has resigned as youth minister at Calvary Church in Abilene.

Jim Curtis to Elmwood Church in Abilene as music minister.

Gary Day has resigned as pastor of First Church in Blanket.

Eric Evans to Southside Church in Brownwood as pastor of worship and administration.

Larry Floyd to Lakeshore Drive Church in Weatherford as youth minister.

Timothy Hardaway to Lane Prairie Church in Joshua as minister of music.

Ken Horton to Honey Creek Church in Wolfe City as pastor.

Steve Horton to Lebanon Church in Cleburne as minister of music.

Billy Lester has resigned as minister of youth at Southside Church in Brownwood.

Arturo Malacara has resigned as pastor of Iglesia Parkview in Hallsville.

Don McNair to First Church in Iredell as youth and music leader.

Durward Minor has resigned as pastor of Holiday Hills Church in Abilene.

Noe Rodriguez to First Church in Valley Mills as associate pastor and youth leader.

Jay Sikes to First Church in Point as pastor.

Tim Waechter to First Church in Devine as minister of music from First Church in Yoakum, where he was minister of music and administration.

John West to First Church in Ore City as pastor.

Joey Wilbourn to Midtown Church in Brownwood as pastor.

Scott Wright has resigned as associate pastor and minister to youth at Calvary Church in Brenham.

Posted 8/8/03

Article List for 8/11/03 issue

• Mary Hill Davis gifts warm hearts and homes

• Montana Vista stands as mountain of witness in El Paso

• Church's mission wrapped up in its name: Perigrino

• Volunteers: The future of border missions

• 24 churches join in Progreso mission

• All-State musicians hoist a tune and a tool on mission

• New BGCT camp unifies diverse Asian teenagers

• BGCT reduces budget for schools but income could rise

• BGCT annual session will offer 'learning and sharing' sessions

• Bivocational ministers discuss how to respond to abuse cases

• Dead Sea Scroll exhibit coming to Dallas next month

• Bluegrass colors a world of musical joy for Bowie family

• Retirement means teaching duty for Rainey

• Half of Americans approve of unmarried women giving birth

• Garland book contains stories of family faith

• Churches struggle to keep newlyweds in church after wedding

• BEFORE 'I DO': Does premarital counseling make a difference?

• Mexican Baptists and Texas Baptists launch three-year partnership

• Nominees sought for Texas Baptist ministry awards

• Church's vision for a clinic grows with aid from other churches

• Missions network edges forward

• PAISANO: Family camping

• School Supply Train greeted eagerly in Longview

• Memories Spann the ages as professor visits school he started

• Wayland touches Africa through Kenya program

• On the Move

• Around the State

• Texas Tidbits

• Land 'troubled' by Ten Commandments judge's defiance of federal court ruling

• Africa True Love Waits program encouraged by Bush commitment

• Rick Warren sees his role as Bible 'translator' for 21st century people

• Harold Bennett, former SBC executive, dies at 78

• Missionary calls teens to 'fall in love with Jesus'

• Acteens raise their hands in service in classrooms around Nashville

• National Acteens Convention knocks at Nashville

• Acteens tour the world through Global Village created for them

• Cobb leaving CBF leadership

• Baylor chaplains honor volunteer for service

• Education journal studies Baptist governance

• Commission magazine remembered for influence

• Retired missionaries ask SBC leaders to stop inflammatory words against Islam

• Stock market gives IMB some financial relief

• A NOTABLE PERFORMANCE: Musical premieres at Glorieta

• Baptist Briefs

• Operation rescue protestor disrupts worship service

• Christian Baseball League Aims to Offer `Godly' Way of Doing Sports

• Moore ordered to remove monument

• House amendments called political grandstanding

• Astronomers pinpoint crucifixion time

• Is 'The Da Vinci Code' as accurate as it claims to be?

• Government and clergy promote drug education

• Exodus International's convention touts 'freedom' from homosexuality

• Ex-gay warns of winning argument, losing neighbor

• Bush weighs in on defining marriage

• Charitable choice component slows advancement of Head Start bill

• Meteor proposed as Constantine's vision

• Owner of James ossuary suspected in far-reaching antiquities fraud

• Majority approve of reciting 'under God'

• Religious affiliation adds a jolt to appointment

• Churchgoers found to be more altruistic

• BIG DADDY WEAVE: Weaving a way

• Whites paid to go to church

• Texas Baptist Forum

• On the Move

• Around the State

• Cartoon

• Classified Ads

• Explore the Bible for August 10: Faith always has feet; deeds indicate devotion

• Explore the Bible Lesson for Aug. 17: The body's most powerful muscle–the tongue

• Explore the Bible Lesson for Aug. 24: Submission to God is key to glorious living

• Family Bible Study for August 10: Flee temptation and avoid the places it prowls

• Family Bible Study for Aug. 17: God uses those who persevere through the test

• Family Bible Study for Aug. 24: A primer for mending broken relationships



• EDITORIAL: Speak biblically, clearly, lovingly about homosexuality

• DOWN HOME: To recycle or not, that's a question

• TOGETHER: Pray & give to meet great needs

• Texas Baptist Forum

• He Said/ She Said

• CYBERCOLUMN: The gospel according to Seabiscuit by Brett Younger

See articles from previous issue 7/28/03 here.