Posted: 11/02/07

Wade recounts struggles, strides in his
tenure as BGCT executive director

By Analiz Gonzalez

Buckner International

MARILLO—In his final executive director’s report to the Baptist General Convention of Texas, Charles Wade reviewed his time in that role, saying he would have handled some things a bit differently, but he insisted he essentially would have made the same decisions.

“We have been through a lot of change in our staff assignments. … I really thought we could get through the change and to a new synergy within two years. It has been more like four years,” he acknowledged.

Due to a lack of funds, 29 full-time BGCT Executive Board staff positions were eliminated recently.

“I will tell you this,” Wade said. “There is no good way to downsize a staff. It is important to offer the best severance, job placement services and retirement packages you feel you can, and that is right to do. But it still hurts, and it takes time to recover.”

He added that BGCT staff love the churches, are ready for the future and will be great partners for the new executive director.

Wade also reviewed the goals he worked for at the BGCT and noted the strides made.

“I wanted us to get our arms around Texas and hug this state up close to God,” he said. “I have seen congregations who have taken seriously the challenge to ask themselves, ‘If Jesus came to our town, to whom would he go?’

“I wanted our presence in Austin through our Christian Life Commission to be an increasing blessing and witness to Christ on behalf of all Christians and people of good will.”

The moral concerns and public policy agency is “recognized by Texas legislators as the source of honest, intelligent, carefully researched information that can help them make the best decisions possible,” Wade said.

“I wanted to see the growing diversity of the population in Texas and play to make our staff, our church starts, our leadership look more like the face of Texas. I wanted Texas Baptists to be friends with an encouragement to Baptists around the world.”

Wade wanted BGCT to remain faithful to historic Baptist principles and emphasize its passion for evangelism, missions and ministry, gospel preaching and strong servant leadership models.

“I wanted to encourage our Texas Baptist institutions, strengthen good relationships between them, collaboration on mutually helpful assignments and engagement with local churches so that our sense of partnership could grow and be mutually beneficial,” he said.

“I wanted pastors and their families to feel valued, encouraged and blessed. I wanted BGCT staff to be closer to the churches and associations available, resourceful, strategic and able to evaluate where we are being helpful and valuable and where we are not.”

Wade has served as executive director since 1999. He will begin his retirement on Feb. 1. A search committee is in place to fill the post.

Posted: 11/02/07

Future of Texas Baptist missions depends on
education, collaborations & communication

By Teresa Young

Wayland Baptist University

MARILLO—Future mission work by Texas Baptists will require a concerted effort in missions education, collaboration and communication to be successful, said a panel of Baptist General Convention of Texas representatives during a workshop held as part of the BGCT annual meeting.

Don Sewell, executive liaison for missions relations with the BGCT, began the workshop with a video detailing the partnerships and mission work already going on around the state and introduced a new BGCT website designed to connect missions efforts.

The site—www.beonmission.org—will serve as a clearinghouse for missions opportunities and work being done around the world, with the idea that others can join in existing efforts or learn about areas not being covered by missions work.

“We really wanted to pull Texas Baptist missions together and communicate that work. We do not have an institution in Texas that is not involved in missions work, yet there is not a lot of connection between them,” said Steve Vernon, pastor of First Baptist Church in Levelland, BGCT president and workshop panelist.

“In my day, to do missions you prayed and you gave … it was missions by proxy. But churches are not satisfied with that anymore.”

Vernon noted that to continue the success and impact being made by Texas Baptists, a greater focus on missions education would have to exist in churches.

“We have to raise up missionaries. They don’t just come out of the woodwork when they turn 25,” Vernon said. “Our students, for example, are excited to go, and they’ll go anywhere. We don’t need to harness that. We need to release it and send them out.”

BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade echoed that sentiment, adding that churches and pastors must be intentional about missions endeavors.

“Missions must be done from the inside out, working on the missions heart of the congregation and individuals,” he said. “And we need to help churches discover their missions DNA, the specific talents, skills and interests they have to do missions effectively.”

Wade also encouraged churches to partner with universities and human care organizations that regularly do missions work; to be deliberate in sharing missions stories and illustrations with their congregations; and to realize the calling all Christians have to be blessings to others.

In the future, Wade hopes the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas missions can be expanded to reach a wider audience and make a greater impact.

In response to an audience query, Wade noted traditional, career missionaries will be of utmost importance to future work as they provide a needed link between countries and people groups and work needed to be done in the area.

They also have the ability to follow up on missions work done by outside groups and ensure progress continues.

The future will be a great testimony to the role of church associations, Wade said, as related churches in geographic proximity to each other work together for greater impact and not feel isolated in their missions work.

Posted: 11/02/07

Warren challenges BGCT
to promote PEACE globally

By Teresa Young

Wayland Baptist University

MARILLO—Developing a heart for missions can be simple, best-selling author and California pastor Rick Warren told Texas Baptists.

“If you want the blessing of God in your life, the power of God in your life, the anointing of God in your life and ministry, you must care about what God cares about most and get on God’s agenda,” Warren said to the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting. “God’s agenda is the kingdom of God. It was the most pre-eminent thing on Jesus’ mind.”

In his 70-minute address to Texas Baptists, Warren described the need for churches to “release the pent-up power and talent sitting in our pews.”

Doing so requires people to recognize their strengths and skills and turn them over to God, much as Moses did when he threw down his staff and it became a snake.

“The staff of Moses represents three things—his identity, his income and his influence,” Warren said.

“God told Moses: ‘If you lay it down, I will make a miracle of it. When you give it to me, surrender it to me, I will do miraculous things.’ And that is the turning point of history.

“My friends of the BGCT, what is in your hand? One day God will ask you the two most important questions: ‘What did you do with my Son, Jesus Christ? And what did you do with what you were given—the talent, ability, opportunities, education, health, freedom—all that I gave you.’”

Like Moses, Warren said, church members must learn to use their own “staffs” for the work of the kingdom. His PEACE plan presents an opportunity for Christians, he said, as his church has made evident during the past three years.

The PEACE plan reflects Jesus’ example of how to combat the five major problems facing the planet, Warren said. Warren identified the issues after working in many countries training ministers and helping his wife in her work with orphans—spiritual emptiness, self-centered leadership, poverty, disease and illiteracy.

“In reading the word of God, I found that the things Jesus did while on the earth are the exact antidote to these five problems facing the planet,” Warren said. His plan calls for Christians in churches—everyday, ordinary people with common talents and skills—to practice these five steps around the world.

• Promote reconciliation. “Jesus said be right with God and be right with each other; he called it the great commandment,” Warren said.

• Equip servant leaders. Warren noted Jesus trained 12 disciples but only mentored three, investing time with those who would bear the most responsibility.

• Assist the poor. In his first public sermon, Jesus announced his purpose was to preach good news to the poor, and he emphasized the need to care for the poor.

• Care for the sick. “Jesus didn’t just care about people’s spiritual health but also their physical health,” Warren said. “Jesus was a healer, unlike any other religious leader.”

• Educate the next generation. Jesus was a teacher, and he focused on teaching the next generation. “Every generation is one generation away from Christianity’s extinction,” Warren said.

Putting that into practice, Warren admitted, is harder to do, but Jesus gives instructions in Matthew 10 about working the plan. He instructs to avoid throwing money at the problems, leave any symbols of power at home, adapt to the local customs as much as possible, and find the “man of peace” in any village and start the ministry with one who is open and influential.

Business and government entities can make an impact, but Warren noted that a lasting difference requires church involvement—the third essential leg of the stool, as he called it.

“The church has the mandate of the gospel, the longevity of history and the promises of God, so what are we cowering about?” he asked. “Let’s take Texas and the world and tell them that this is the kingdom of God.”

Posted: 11/02/07

Currie: If Texas Baptists ‘build it, they will come’

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

AMARILLO—If Texas Baptists move forward with a bold vision, other mainstream Baptists around the country will embrace the dream, Texas Baptists Committed Executive Director David Currie said.

Drawing from a line in Field of Dreams, Currie told a meeting of the moderate Baptist political organization, “If you build it, they will come.”

Currie readily acknowledged he doesn’t fully know what “it” looks like, but he insisted the future means more than fighting fundamentalism.

“It’s time to make noise about who we are and stop making noise about what kind of Baptists we are not,” he said.

Currie rejected the assertion that Texas Baptists Committed had been a divisive force in the Baptist General Convention of Texas by organizing to resist a takeover by fundamentalists.

“We have been a unifying force in the convention. … We have tried to be inclusive,” he said, pointing out that due largely to his group’s influence, the BGCT elected its first Hispanic president, first African-American president and first woman president. “We did it because that was the right thing to do.”

The Southern Baptist Convention remains “closely tied to the Religious Right that is seeking to destroy religious freedom in this country,” Currie asserted. The SBC also demands that every missionary and teacher in a seminary “sign a creed”—affirm belief in the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message statement, he added.

Rather than fight the SBC, Texas Baptists Committed should challenge the BGCT to present an alternative vision of what it means to be Baptist, he said.

Currie offered four recommendations to help the BGCT move forward:

• Stop forwarding money to other conventions or fellowships outside Texas.

“We need to figure out how to get out of denominational politics altogether,” Currie said. “We need a Texas-only budget that doesn’t pass any money to anybody else. We should prepare a budget that passes nothing to worldwide causes because we have our own worldwide causes.”

If churches want to send money to the SBC or the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, they should “write their own check to Nashville or Atlanta” rather than channel the money through the BGCT offices, he said.

• Fund Texas missionaries directly.

“We should stop missionaries from becoming political pawns in a political nightmare,” he said. “If there is any missionary from Texas who wants to go to the field, let’s challenge Texas Baptists to pay for it.”

Texas Baptists should provide at least a portion of the direct funding for any Texas Baptist who feels called to serve internationally with any missions-sending agency, he said. He recommended the World-conneX missions network either be reconfigured or replaced with an entity that can help Texas Baptists send missionaries.

• Make the Christian Life Commission a national ethics agency for Baptists.

“Let’s be the leader in the Baptist world in showing that there is no division between ethics and evangelism,” he said. “The Christian Life Commission should be a national agency. … There should be a CLC presence in every state.”

• Keep churches in the forefront.

Currie applauded recent BGCT efforts to place personnel and resources closer to churches in the field.

“Remember the local church,” he said. “And never forget small churches.”

At the close of the meeting, Texas Baptists Committed executive board Chairman Bill Tillman announced the board had voted to create four special committees.

The committees will study the organization’s fund-raising efforts; possibilities for educating Texas Baptists regarding Baptist distinctives, history, leadership and current issues; the feasibility of relocating the TBC office from San Angelo to Dallas; and improvements in technology.

The board also is making plans to hire an associate director, Tillman reported.

Posted: 11/02/07

‘See yourselves as sons and daughters of God,’ Amarillo pastor urges Texas Baptists

By Teresa Young

Wayland Baptist University

AMARILLO—Texas Baptists have much to be proud of because their identity as adopted children of God, Howard Batson, pastor of First Baptist Church in Amarillo, said in the annual sermon at the Baptist General Convention of Texas meeting.

“Texas Baptists, as the adopted sons and daughters of God, go forth to work for the kingdom, knowing not only who you are but also whose you are,” Batson said. “You are his sons and daughters.”

With the theme “On Being God’s People: Adopted,” Batson told a story about meeting a Texas family while on a mission trip to Russia. The couple was there to adopt a young girl from a Russian orphanage, and even though Vera had barely known the couple, she already was calling the man “Papa” as they were leaving for home.

“How does Vera’s being adopted by the Hasting family have anything to do with Texas Baptists being the people of God?” Batson asked. “Jesus came—or he was sent—in order that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”

Citing Galatians 4:7, Batson noted Christians are chosen by God for adoption and are, therefore, heirs of God’s kingdom.

Adoption represents a vital theme to believers because it carries the idea of great benefits that would not normally be inherent to all people. Pointing to the example of a couple bringing home a new child, Batson said the adoption process requires not only the approval of the adopters but also the adoptee. In the Christian sense, the adoption brings about the Holy Spirit’s indwelling, among other benefits.

“We now have the right to call God, ‘Father,’” Batson said. Referring back to Vera’s story, he noted the girl had some challenges relating to her Papa because of her experiences with a biological father.

“We sometimes have a hard time realizing that God loves us this much. Why should he? We’re sinful and broken. We’re incomplete and wanting,” Batson said.

“We can read that God has made us his sons and daughters. We know it with our heads. But our theology must connect to our hearts when we realize that God loved us that much. For only when it’s in our hearts will we change the way that we live.”

Adoption in the Christian sense brings redemption sent through God’s Spirit, Batson said. Just as the Hasting family traveled to Russia and paid the fees necessary to bring Vera home, God made the sacrifice and sent his son to redeem his children. And with adoption comes a special inheritance that believers do not deserve and cannot earn but can only receive through becoming a child of God.

“I don’t know how the Hastings will divide their estate in the decades to come. But if I were guessing, I would guess that Vera will share equal portions with their biological sons. By birthright, Vera deserves nothing of the Hasting estate. But by adoption, she has her fair share,” Batson said.

“By birthright, we sons of Adam deserve nothing in regard to the glory of Christ. But by our adoption, we become co-heirs with Christ.”

Batson related the analogy by reminding the gathered Texas Baptists that “we are, each and every one of us, adopted as God’s children.”

“As Texas Baptists, all we do can be seen under the paradigm of adoption,” he said. “We are to be a James 1:27 people, and secondly, we are to be busy with missions and evangelism endeavors to bring people into the family of God as sons and daughters.

“We are all about adoption, both socially and evangelically. I would say to you today, if you’ve accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior: ‘I see the resemblance. You are a son or a daughter of God.’”

Posted: 11/02/07

BGCT president urges Texas Baptists
to seek the lost, feed the flocks

By Analiz González

Buckner International

AMARILLO—With references to Jesus’ parables about a lost coin, a lost sheep and a lost boy in Luke 15, Steve Vernon urged participants at the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting to follow Christ’s command to seek the lost and feed the sheep.

In his presidential message to the convention, Vernon recalled a time when his 4-year-old daughter walked off in a mall. She was only gone five minutes, but it gave him a glimpse into what God feels for those who don’t follow him.

“It’s the picture of the yearning of the father for a child,” said Vernon, pastor of First Baptist Church in Levelland and incumbent BGCT president.

“Often times at churches, we get busy about other things. We get busy about housekeeping and doing our services and cleaning the buildings and filing all the insurance and going through the motions, … and none of that is bad. But shouldn’t the shepherds feed the sheep? Isn’t that what we ought to be about?”

About 24 million people live in Texas, and an estimated 11 million profess to be Christians. The rest are scattered and lost, Vernon said.

“There is a world around us that is injured, that is hurt, They’re weak and sick. They stray, they’re scattered, they’re lost,” Vernon said.

“In Ezekiel 34, it says that they become food for every wild animal. And it laments that God sees the sheep, but he sees no one looking for them. That’s the picture of the sheep around us in our state, nation, our world.”

Texas Baptists can demonstrate their love for Christ by doing what he called them to do, he insisted.

“Shouldn’t shepherds feed the sheep?” he asked.

Posted: 11/02/07

Around the State

• The Baylor University School of Social Work will host a summit Nov. 8-11 to explore collaborations between Texas and international entities providing services to orphanages, the homeless, street children and victims of human trafficking in the Republic of Moldova. For more information, call (254) 710-6230.

• Shane & Shane and Bebo Norman will perform in concert at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor at 7 p.m. Nov. 9. Tickets are free for students and $10 for others. For more information, call (254) 295-5150.

• Valley Baptist Health System will sponsor a seminar addressing child abuse prevention, intervention and investigation in the Rio Grande Valley—including children being victimized through Internet pornography—Nov. 9-10 at the Radisson Resort on South Padre Island. Continuing education credit will be available for nurses, social workers, law enforcement personnel and attorneys. For more information and registration fees, call (956) 389-4702.

• The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor Church Relations department and Bell Association will hold a free seminar titled “Hitting Your Target or Missing Your Market” Nov. 10.

• The Baylor Alumni Association presented the W.R. White Meritorius Service Award to four individuals during its meeting Nov. 2. This year’s honorees are Ray Burchette Jr., Diane Dillard, Joyce Hornaday Packard and Rufus Spain.

• Estelle Owens has been named university historian at Wayland Baptist University. A professor of history at the school since 1974, she has played a key role in preserving and researching the university’s history. The last two years, she has focused on compiling a history book for the university’s upcoming centennial celebration.

• Missionaries to Portugal David and Joy Borgan are living in Mineral Wells until Jan. 5 and are available to speak in churches. They can be contacted through First Church at (940) 325-2523.

Anniversaries

• Bob Batson, 20th, as minister of education/discipleship at Highland Church in Lubbock, Oct. 28.

• Mount Pleasant Church in Comanche, 115th, Nov. 11. A meal will follow the morning service. Dan Connally is pastor.

• H.B. Graves, 60th in ministry. He was licensed by First Church in Hillsboro in November 1947. He was a pastor of churches in Texas and Oklahoma 55 years, and he has been a church starter and seminary teacher in Vermont the last five years.

Death

• Walter Gilbreath, 77, Sept. 28 in McGehee, Ark. He was a pastor of churches in Arkansas and Texas, including Central Church in Longview, more than 50 years. At the time of his death, he was interim pastor of Bethel Church in Gould, Ark. He was preceded in death by his brothers, Elton and Milton. He is survived by his wife of 51 years, Mary; sons, Paul and John; daughters, Ann Mc-Gough and Glenda Edwards; sister, Walta Huard; 10 grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.

Ordained

• Scott Williams, to the ministry, at First Church in Huntsville.

Revival

• First Church, Haskell; Nov. 4-7; evangelist, Ricky Guenther; music, The Aten Family; pastor, Greg Gasaway.

Posted: 11/02/07

African-American Texas
Baptists gather for worship, praise

By Dave Coffield

Hardin-Simmons University

AMARILLO—Celebration and worship were at the forefront as hundreds of African-American Texas Baptists gathered at St. John Baptist Church of Amarillo on the eve of the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting.

Pastor Grover Neal spoke of the purpose and accomplishments of the African American Fellowship of Texas.

“It now includes over 800 churches whose purpose is to glorify God and assist in his redemptive work,” he noted.

Doubt remains ever-present because there is a fallen angel whose purpose is to instill doubt, Michael Evans, pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Mansfield, told the group in his keynote sermon.

But if Christians remember “it is the duty for all called people to point people to Jesus, then doubt will be defeated,” Evans said.

Even Jesus’ disciples came to him with doubt, but Jesus did not entertain their concern, he continued.

“He is a Savior who is constantly moving on to the next thing,” Evans said. “He simply told them, ‘All authority has been given to me on heaven and earth,’ and the disciples understood and moved on with him.”

Posted: 11/02/07

Texas Baptists have worldwide
influence through BWA, Coffey says

By Blake Killingsworth

Dallas Baptist University

AMARILLO—Baptist World Alliance President David Coffey encouraged Texas Baptists to stand with their brothers and sisters around the world in order to have a global impact.

Speaking during the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting, Coffey thanked Texas Baptists for their continuing support of the BWA and described the ways their support helps promote Baptist mission and witness around the globe.

The BWA is a fellowship of more than 200 Baptist conventions and unions with a membership of 38 million. The alliance offers a united voice for Baptists across the globe in evangelistic efforts, promotion of human rights and response to people in need.

During his address to Texas Baptists, Coffey described how support from the BGCT allows the BWA to fulfill its five main objectives—unity, evangelism, response to need, defending human rights and promoting theological reflection.

In referring to the work of promoting unity, Coffey stressed that Baptists need to focus less on the differences that divide them and more on the Savior who unites. This unity allows Baptists to speak with one voice when calling others to repentance and faith in Jesus.

“We need to focus on the missionary God, not on each other. By supporting the BWA, you help millions of young Baptists stay on the message of Christ.”

Coffey encouraged Texas Baptists to focus on the lack of religious liberty and the abuses of human rights around the world.

More than 250 million Christians in 60 countries live in fear of practicing their faith, he noted.

As recently as Oct. 7, a bookstore owner in Gaza was found shot in the head. His Baptist pastor explained he had for some time been pressured to convert to Islam, which he had refused to do.

“This is a Baptist brother who laid down his life for the Lord,” Coffey said.

More than 150,000 Christians were martyrs last year.

“As Baptists, religious liberty is in our DNA,” he stated. “Your support of the BWA enables us to be a voice for the voiceless.”

Coffey drew attention to the plight of many Christians in the Holy Land. He described a recent trip, recounting his meetings with leaders throughout the region and conversations with Bethlehem pastors.

“When you pray for the peace of Israel,” the pastors told Coffey to tell others, “also pray for the peace of Palestine and for the peace of the Arab Christians.”

Posted: 11/02/07

Hispanic leaders take on
local and international projects

By Analiz Gonzalez

Buckner International

AMARILLO—Hispanic Texas Baptists can make a difference in lives around the world, leaders of the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas told a rally in Amarillo, prior to the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting.

Hispanic Texas Baptists are lobbying for immigration reform, planning international missions and ministry projects, building homes for retired ministers and crossing generational barriers, said President Baldemar Borrego.

Hispanic convention representatives have visited the White House repeatedly in an effort to influence the debate on immigration reform. Specifically, they have urged lawmakers to support a resolution that would allow people to become permanent residents without having to leave the United States and the Dream Act, which would allow young people to apply for legal status under the condition of obtaining higher education, joining the military or doing a set amount of community service.

Leaders are exploring a missions project to involve Hispanic Baptists in building a well in India, Borrega reported.

“This is the first time that we, as a Hispanic group, are working together to help our brothers and sisters in India,” he said. “We are also looking into working with orphans and widows in the country.”

While Hispanic Texas Baptists have the world on their hearts, the focus of the Hispanic convention continues to be Texas, Borrego said. And part of that focus is a project to build retirement homes for pastors. The first house will be completed soon, and it should be ready for occupancy the third or fourth week of November.

The group also is working on leadership development, Borrego said. Experienced pastors are being equipped to mentor people who feel called to enter the ministry but have no experience in leading churches.

The Hispanic convention also wants to unify people of different generations within the Hispanic community, Borrego noted.

“With culture and language, there is often a lot of separation, and we want to be sure that as Hispanics, we are able to preserve the value we hold for all members of the family, regardless of their age,” he said, noting the Hispanic convention is seeking to involve young people in key positions.

“When we hold convención this year, we will have conferences, called a youth convocation, which will be geared towards the third generation,” he said.

Posted: 11/02/07

Foundation honors three

The Texas Baptist Missions Foundation presented three missions awards at an event held in conjunction with the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting in Amarillo.

Bob Stephenson, a layman from a BGCT-affiliated church in Norman, Okla., received the Adventurer Award. Stephenson has given generously of his time and about $6 million to Baptist causes he believes in, including protecting Baptist distinctives and religious liberty.

Tim Holloway, president of Baptist Community Services in Amarillo, received the Innovator Award on behalf of the High Plains Christian Ministries Foundation. The foundation has provided more than $9 million in grants and gifts to churches and organizations for worldwide missions.

Associate Pastor Jeff Raines accepted the Pioneer Award for Service in Missions on behalf of First Baptist Church in Amarillo.

The church has an $800,000 missions budget, and more than 10 percent of its active members participate in international mission trips to Mexico, Brazil, Kenya and Zambia. The church’s missions budget also enables students to serve in nine countries, including China, Singapore, Australia, Nigeria and Russia.

It also is involved in planting cowboy churches; helps sponsor the Mosaic emerging church in Austin; serves four language groups; and teaches English as a Second Language to 80 refugees from 18 countries every week.

Posted: 11/02/07

Book Reviews

Seeing in the Dark: Getting the Facts on Depression and Finding Hope Again by Gary Kinnaman and Richard Jacobs (Bethany House Publishers)

 Addressing what many in the medical profession have labeled the No. 1 medical problem, Gary Kinnaman and Richard Jacobs have joined forces in putting the focus upon depression. 

The book is written subjectively, due to the battles with depression experienced by Kinnaman, a pastor, and Jacobs’ wife, Sue. Concise and easy to read, Seeing in the Dark provides insight from medical (physical), psychological and spiritual points of view. 

What are you reading that other Texas Baptists would find helpful? Send suggestions and reviews to books@baptiststandard.com.

Admitting they do not have all the answers to depression, Kinnaman and Jacobs fill their book with well-documented, up-to-date information.  Some of the topics include confronting the myths about depression, how to recognize true depression, brain chemistry and depression, biblical insights into depression, how patterns of thinking impact depression, living above your pain and other issues faced by people who battle the illness. 

The fifth chapter, “Fearfully and Wonderfully Made,” deals with brain anatomy, the importance of sleep, brain exercise, helpful foods, Saint John’s wort, anti-depressant medications and electroconvulsive therapy—practical information needed by those who either suffer from depression or seek to assist those who battle it every day.

Following chapters reveal some of the pathways to wholeness that are available in the spiritual realm, through the help of others, and how to live when depression will not go away.

This book is written to provide encouragement as well as information, and one can find affirmation, strength, encouragement and purpose within its pages. Seeing In the Dark is a book worth having and, especially, sharing with others.

Randall Scott, pastor

Immanuel Baptist Church, Paris

The 2-degree Difference: How Little Things Can Change Everything by John Trent (B&H Publishing Group)

Brian was one of those people who thought big problems call for big solutions. Suffering from problems at home, work and his health, he felt hopeless, and any change might be too little too late. He was not leading the life he had planned.

That is when he met Eric, the new lively leader of his accountability group.

Eric introduces Brian to “The 2-Degree Difference,” the idea that small things, both good and bad, grow on compounded interest. Making small changes in one area of your life can help reap huge benefits, and change can spill over to other areas.

After much skepticism, Brian decided to test this idea, making one small step at a time. His life began to improve, slowly but surely, to a life better than he had imagined.

The book is divided into three parts—Brian’s story, a journal and a plan. The reader can work through this book alone or with a small accountability group. The 2- Degree Difference takes readers, one small step at a time, on a journey to a better life.

Rebekah Hardage

Communications Intern, Waco