Artwork created by seven Wayland Baptist University seniors will be on display April 19 to May 17 at Abraham Art Gallery. The exhibitions are part of a capstone class for art majors and required for graduation. “For most students it will be the first solo show in their professional exhibition record,” said Candace Keller, art professor and university curator and art director for the gallery. “The students are responsible for all aspects of development, design and installation of their professional visual art exhibition.” Students with artwork in the senior exhibition are Paten Denton, graphite, acrylic paint, oil pastels and charcoal; Alli Ferguson, digital and mixed media; Blanca Murillo, traditional and digital art; Daniel Hartman, primarily street photography with some acrylic paint and pencil; Selma Sutaj, painting and drawing; Ashlyn Holmes, drawing, painting and animation; and Zeah Clark, acrylic, block printing and ceramics. Some of the works on display will be on sale, either as originals or prints. Abraham Art Gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Thursday; and 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., Friday and Saturday. For more information or to schedule a group tour, call the gallery at 806-291-3710.

For more than a decade, Wayland Baptist University has celebrated Creation Care Week. The emphasis acknowledges God as creator, sustainer and redeemer of all things, and it recognizes many still believe God’s creation is an exploitable commodity. Creation Care Week reminds the university family one cannot honestly declare love for God while destroying his creation. “Creation care is about caring for God’s creation in the same ways that he does,” said Matthew Allen, professor of biological sciences in the Kenneth L. Mattox School of Mathematics and Sciences. Allen will be the featured chapel speaker at 11 a.m. on April 17, as he presents “Tree Tales.” He will discuss tree species found on the Plainview campus, detailing both their ecology and the ways humans interact with them. As part of Creation Care Week, the university offers a special screening of Deep in the Heart: A Texas Wildlife Story, a film narrated by Matthew McConaughey. The critically acclaimed documentary will be shown at 7 p.m. on April 17. On Thursday, Wayland will gather to put creation care into action at “Come Plant with Us,” where students, faculty and staff are scheduled to help beautify outdoor planter boxes.

Renovations recently were completed for a microbiology lab in Howard Payne University’s Winebrenner Memorial Hall of Science, thanks to funding from HPU supporters. “It is now a state-of-the-art space that will better support the student experience in our classes each day,” said Kristen Hutchins, dean of the School of Science and Mathematics. Winebrenner Hall was built in 1962 and named in memory of longtime faculty member O.E. Winebrenner. The updates to the microbiology lab are the most recent in a series of lab and classroom renovations made within the facility in the last several years. Dale Meinecke, HPU’s vice president for Advancement, expressed the university’s gratitude to supporters of the renovation project. “We extend our appreciation to Waldrop Construction, the Central Texas J.R. Beadel Foundation and several other alumni supporters and friends who gave generously to make this renovation possible,” Meinecke said. “In total, nearly $170,000 was given in support of this project.”

Houston Christian University held a groundbreaking ceremony for Founders Hall 2, the final building in the Morris Family Center for Law & Liberty complex, on April 2. HCU President Robert Sloan joined the Morris family, past and former members of HCU’s board of trustees, members of the Executive Council, faculty and staff, and Brookstone Construction contractors to mark the beginning of construction on the final phase of the five-building complex. The $7 million 18,438-sq.-ft. building will mirror the size and dimensions of the adjacent Founders Hall 1 building. The new academic building will house nine classrooms, seven faculty offices and a conference room. Slated for completion in January 2025, the building will provide additional space to support HCU’s Institutional Strategic Plan, “Husky 2030,” and help the university continue its mission—instilling in students a passion for academic, spiritual and professional excellence as a result of their central confession, “Jesus Christ is Lord.”

Faculty in the College of Science & Engineering at Houston Christian University will be able to enhance student performance in traditionally challenging freshman-level math and science courses thanks to a $500,000 project grant funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation.  Established by the National Science Foundation Act of 1950, the foundation’s top priorities are to promote discovery in science and engineering, accelerate technology and innovation and advance diversity in science and engineering.  Submission of the federally funded grant was spearheaded by faculty members Illya Medina Velo, assistant professor of chemistry and director of science sesearch, David Meng, associate professor of mathematics and engineering, and Kamela Gallardo, assistant professor of biology. Katie Evans, dean of HCU’s College of Science & Engineering expressed her appreciation for the team’s efforts.  “I am especially thankful for their leadership and effort in support of student learning, and I am eager to provide whatever administrative support is needed to ensure success of this important work,” Evans said.

Attachment 2 – Photo Caption: HCU student in a lab in the College of Science and Engineering | Photo credit: Carnegie | Houston Christian University

Hundreds of students gathered inside a large white tent in the middle of campus for the 25th annual spring revival at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor April 8-10. This year’s theme was “Called by Name.” Shane Pruitt, the National Next Gen director for the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board, was the featured speaker. Jimmy McNeal and Austin Stone Worship led worship for the three-day event. “Revival 2024 has seen more than 100 students respond to calls to salvation, rededication and repentance. In addition, 29 students accepted a call to serve in ministry leadership roles,” said UMHB’s dean of spiritual life and university chaplain Jason Palmer. A thunderstorm on the second night of the revival required a move from the tent to Walton Chapel, where participants worshipped acapella and responded to a call to repentance delivered without a microphone. “The simplicity of the gospel was on display, and it was beautiful,” said a post on the UMHB Spiritual Life Instagram page.

Anniversary

30th for Allen Frans as youth and family pastor at Central Baptist Church in Round Rock. He also has served more than two decades as chaplain for the baseball and football teams at Round Rock High School and for the Round Rock Express minor league baseball team.

LENEXA, Kansas (BP)—David Crowther, pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Wichita, Kan., will be nominated for Southern Baptist Convention first vice president.

Steve Dighton, pastor emeritus of Lenexa Baptist Church in Lenexa, Kan., announced he will nominate Crowther at the 2024 SBC annual meeting June 11-12 in Indianapolis.

“David Crowther is a young dynamic leader and one who would thrive in this position of leadership,” Dighton said.

“He is humble, a servant leader, a gifted preacher and a loving shepherd. He is a consensus builder and desires to see us flourish in the years to come.”

Crowther became Immanuel’s senior pastor in November 2019. He previously served churches in North Carolina, South Carolina and Kentucky.

He currently is first vice president of the Kansas-Nebraska Convention of Southern Baptists.

Dighton says Immanuel Church “has grown numerically, increasing baptisms, mission offerings and mission giving,” under Crowther’s leadership.

Crowther has also helped the church to increase Cooperative Program giving, Dighton added.

In 2023, the church reported 557 people in average worship attendance and 41 baptisms, according to the SBC Annual Church Profile. The church gave $72,636 (5 percent) of $1,455,921 in undesignated offerings to the Cooperative Program; $25,833 to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and $992 to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering.

Crowther holds a bachelor’s degree from Anderson University, a Master of Divinity degree from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and a doctorate in philosophy from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

He and his wife Laura have three children.

He joins Michael Clary as an announced candidate to be nominated for SBC first vice president.

WASHINGTON (BP)—Many turn to LinkedIn for updates on industry insiders, but among the billion professionals featured alongside respected companies are sexual exploitation leaders such as Pornhub and OnlyFans.

CashApp is popular for electronic payments, but a 17-year-old boy committed suicide after he became a victim of sexual extortion or “sextortion” by criminals who threatened to ruin his life unless he paid them, and only through CashApp.

Nude photos of your daughter are all over the internet, but she pleads innocence. Turns out, her classmates snapped her photo and generated “deepfake” nude images, likely using software shared on Microsoft’s GitHub, where more than 100 million software code writers worldwide collaborate in developing programs.

GitHub’s open-source design allows “anyone to access, use, change, and share software” developed by such giants as Google, Amazon, Twitter, Meta, and Microsoft, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation said, making GitHub the “most prolific space” for AI development and “a major facilitator of the growing crimes of image-based sexual abuse.”

LinkedIn, CashApp and GitHub are among those making the center’s 2024 Dirty Dozen List for “facilitating, enabling, and even profiting from sexual abuse and exploitation.”

“No corporation should be hosting any type of sexual abuse and exploitation but we certainly don’t expect places like LinkedIn to be hosting and perpetuating sexual abuse and exploitation,” said Lina Nealon, vice president and director of corporate advocacy for the center.

“So, we found that LinkedIn is providing a platform for many exploitative companies, most particular PornHub. LinkedIn is normalizing them as a job like any other, as a company like any other.”

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation accused industry leaders of various forms of exploitation including child sexual abuse, rape, sexual extortion, prostitution, sex trafficking, image-based abuse and other evils, documented by the center’s staff including researchers and legal experts.

“These (12) entities exert enormous influence and power politically, economically, socially and culturally, with several corporations on this list enjoying more resources in global recognition than entire nations,” Nealon said.

“Most of the companies we’re calling out have lofty corporate responsibility statements and have launched ethical AI task forces,” Nealon said. “We’re challenging them to actually live up to those statements and fulfill their social obligations to do something.”

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation calls out:

• Apple, accusing the tech giant of facilitating abuse by refusing to scan for child sex abuse material, hosting dangerous apps with “deceptive” age ratings and descriptions, and neglecting to set default safety features for teens.
• Cloudflare, a “a platform for sex buyers and traffickers” that claims a desire to “build a better internet,” but provides services “to some of the most prolific prostitution forums and deepfake sites.”
• Discord as a “hotspot for dangerous interactions and deepfakes.” Exploiters and pedophiles easily contact and groom children on the site, luring children away from home, enticing children into sending sexually explicit images, and sharing sexually explicit images and deepfakes with each other.
• Meta, with its launch of end-to-end encryption, open-sourced AI, and virtual reality “unleashing new worlds of exploitation.” Meta platforms Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp “have consistently been ranked for years as the top hotspots for a host of crimes and harms,” the national center said, noting pedophile networks where members share child sex abuse material, contact children and promote children to abusers. The sites enable sex trafficking, sextortion, and image-based sexual abuse, the center said.  In an April 11 blog post, Instagram announced it was implementing new tools to protect users—particularly young people—from sexual exploitation, including a feature that automatically blurs nude images in direct messages.
• Reddit is a hotspot for sexploitation, the center said, citing child sex abuse material, sex trafficking, and image-based sexual abuse and pornography. The content will be further monetized if Reddit succeeds in going public, the national center said.
• Roblox, where users with such names as “RaipedLittleGirl” regularly target children among Roblox’s 54 million daily users, bombarding them with sexually explicit content generated through artificial intelligence, grooming them for sexual abuse and luring them from their homes. The center calls out the $2.8 billion platform, popular with preteens, for not embracing “common sense child protection measures.”
• Spotify, a music streaming app the center said also hosts sexually explicit images, sadistic content and networks trading child sex abuse material. The national center accused Spotify of pervasive hardcore pornography and sexual exploitation.
• Telegram, promoted as a dark web alternative, has instead unleashed a new era of exploitation, the center said, describing the app as a safe haven for criminal communities globally including sexual torture rings, sextortion gangs, deepfake bots and ot

In a March 26 letter, the Ukraine Council of Evangelical Protestant Churches urged U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson to vote on providing aid to Ukraine without delay.

Citing the 1,000-year history of Christianity in Ukraine, pastors representing the Evangelical Council zeroed in on the bourgeoning of evangelical Christianity since gaining independence from Russia in 1991 to build their case.

“Thousands of new churches were planted, dozens of seminaries and Bible schools were established, and thousands of missionaries went to numerous countries. Almost every city and town has Christian Summer Camps where the gospel of Jesus Christ is proclaimed,” the letter read.

But despite efforts to “break away from the godless, misogynistic Soviet past with its totalitarianism and tyranny of communism. The evil spirits of darkness push the Kremlin leaders to forcefully claim Ukraine again, capture us into their empire, destroying Ukrainian spiritual treasures,” it continued.

Writers of the letter mentioned church buildings being taken away, ministers being arrested and tortured, the Russian bombings of an East Ukraine church, Feb. 28—which killed the pastor—and an apartment building, March 2—which killed 12, including five children and an evangelical pastor’s daughter and infant grandson.

“We have lots of stories like that … Someone gets killed daily … Children get hurt every single day … And the enemy keeps turning our beautiful cities and towns into ruins,” the letter said.

‘The Lord is our hope, but we expect you to act’

The letter implored Speaker Johnson to come to the aid of evangelical churches in Ukraine because “as Evangelicals, we are being accused of working for the interests of the American Government. Every Evangelical Christian becomes a target for the russian [sic] FSB [counterintelligence agency which succeeded the KGB] on the occupied territories, using the russian [sic] Orthodox Church as their asset.”

Appealing to Johnson’s shared evangelical faith—Southern Baptist—the letter closed by asking for “prayers and action on behalf of 8,000 Evangelical churches in Ukraine.

“Approval of military help depends on you today; otherwise, many of our brothers and sisters in Christ will die. Yes, the Lord is our hope, but we expect you to act … vote without delay and approve a military and economic help package.”

The letter was signed by Anatoliy Kozachok, acting chairman of the Ukraine Council of Evangelical and Protestant Churches and senior bishop of Ukranian Pentecostal Church and 15 additional denominational leaders and pastors, including Valerli Antoniuk, president of the All-Ukrainian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists.

A group of Southern Baptist leaders also sent a letter to Johnson April 8, shortly after the appeal from the Ukraine Council of Evangelical Protestant Churches, urging support for Ukraine.

Pastor Felix Treviño knew the metric stating a healthy church should have one baptism per year for every 15 people in average worship attendance, but First Baptist Church of Mathis simply was not seeing God move in that way.

Treviño became pastor of First Baptist in Mathis last August. When he arrived, the church was running about 30 in attendance and was not reaching its changing community of about 5,000 effectively.

Despite being a 25-minute drive from his home in Calallen, he took on the challenge of leading the struggling congregation, because he sensed the people there were open to change.

“They wanted to rebuild and give back to the community,” he said. “It was predominantly an Anglo church originally, but they are in a mostly Hispanic area, and they wanted a younger, bivocational pastor with more of a missional mindset. Being a church planter, that transitioned well for me.”

Treviño signed up to attend a Pave church revivalization workshop offered by Texas Baptists’ Center for Church Health. In February, he joined a cohort to work through Pave principles of church revitalization with other pastors in similar situations.

Within a month, the church began to see results.

Highlighting baptism

“When we left the cohort, [director of Church Health and Growth] Jonathan Smith said: ‘Don’t microwave the brisket. You can’t rush this process, but there were things you can do already,’” Treviño recalled. “We had one woman who wanted to be baptized. So, we implemented the plan for baptism that Jonathan had shared with us.”

Smith’s baptism plan included three phases: show a video of the woman answering three questions about her salvation the week before her baptism, baptize her the following week, and then show a celebratory video of her baptism one week later.

Treviño modified the plan to fit his congregation and made sure the woman being baptized was comfortable with it.

“She’s a new member of the church,” Treviño said. “And since then, our church has been really ecstatic about seeing growth happen.”

Treviño said no one in the church could remember when the baptismal waters at the church in Mathis had been stirred. A 2017 Facebook post from the church was the last instance of a baptism they could find, meaning it had been at least 2,429 days since their last baptism.

‘Alive and active again’

The new baptism sparked a flame across their small community.

“Using the baptism allowed us to promote that the church was alive and active again,” said Treviño. “We shared the video on Facebook and with local community groups. The area Baptist association shared as well, and that helped people to get excited about what God was doing.”

The church already is planning the next such celebration. Treviño’s sermon on obedience to God stirred something within a man who had been attending for about a year and was seeking truth.

“One man came up and said he wanted to surrender to Christ and be baptized as well. There’s impact already,” Treviño said. “He had been searching for a while and had grown a lot in the past few months. Seeing that really pushed him to make that commitment.”

While that first baptism was a catalyst, Treviño said, additional growth has occurred as he’s implemented many familiar church planting techniques in addition to the baptism emphasis since his arrival.

He contacted community leaders, including the Mathis Economic Development group, and expressed the church’s interest in getting involved. The congregation participated in a local parade and a Trunk or Treat event that attracted around 2,000 community members. They connected with the local school district to deliver Bibles and met with area business leaders. Already, church attendance has grown to about 60.

“We went big on social media and utilized that free resource to reach the younger generation. We have a basketball court in our parking lot, and we share that with a youth team in our neighborhood. So, we’re starting to connect with the community and meet the physical and spiritual needs of people here,” Treviño said.

Committed to church growth

As a bivocational pastor, Treviño works full-time as a firefighter for the local refinery. He’s also a firearms instructor who regularly holds church security trainings.

He and his wife Sara also operate one of the largest outdoor markets in South Texas, attracting more than 100 vendors and food trucks every other month.

Still, they are committed to seeing the church in Mathis grow, as nearly the entire family serves in some capacity. Son Ryan, a senior who will attend Wayland Baptist University in the fall, leads worship and plays guitar. The Treviños also have a sophomore son, Zach; an eighth-grade daughter, Skylar; and a niece living with them who is a high school senior.

“We’re excited about the process, and we haven’t even started scratching the surface of what we want to do,” Treviño said.

“The most beneficial thing about Pave is the structured process. For someone bivocational like me, I need that structure and the accountability of my cohort group.”

NAPERVILLE, Ill. (RNS)—In their own ways, Jim Wallis and Donald Trump each profess belief the Bible can save America.

Trump, who recently endorsed Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the USA Bible, a book that combines the King James Version with the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence, has characterized the Christian Scripture as both a symbol of power and a sign to his followers that their way of life is under threat.

“We must make America pray again,” the former president said in a YouTube and social media promotional video released in Holy Week.

For Wallis, the evangelical Christian minister and longtime social justice activist, the Bible’s substance, not its symbolism, holds the power to address America’s ills and save democracy.

Speaking at a suburban Chicago bookstore April 8, Wallis quoted a passage from the Book of Genesis that asserts all human beings are made in God’s image. As such, he said, any attack on democracy is an attack on something holy.

Wallis agrees American democracy is in crisis and needs to be saved, but it won’t be accomplished by Americans giving in to their “worst demons” and tearing each other apart.

“We need to go deeper than politics,” he told the 20 or so people who had come out to hear him talk about his new book, The False White Gospel. The book turns to a series of biblical stories—from Genesis’ creation account to the parable of the good Samaritan—largely calling to end the polarization and fear that divide the country.

Despite the decline of organized religion, faith and politics still make a volatile combination in a country where the Republican candidate, a thrice-divorced former reality TV star with a history of sexual misconduct, is running as a defender of the Christian faith.

That fact was apparent in the past few weeks as Wallis’ book tour has taken him to cable news shows, yielding segments remarkable for their ardent questions about the meaning of Christianity, not from the evangelical Christian minister and longtime social justice activist, but from his hosts.

The day after Easter, Joe Scarborough of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” expressed exasperation as he asked Wallis about Trump’s followers: “Why do they have to embrace a failed reality TV host and take him on as the other Jesus, their new savior?”

Joy Reid, host of “The ReidOut,” another MSNBC show, called Trump’s Bible pitch blasphemy. “To Donald Trump, a Bible is no more sacred than a Trump board game. Or Trump water. It’s just another cheap tchotchke to sell to his followers.”

Amanda Henderson, director of the Institute for Religion, Politics & Culture at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver and host of the “Complexified” podcast, said Trump is one of a long line of politicians and leaders in history who understand the power of religion as political tool.

“At a time when so many people feel a sense of loneliness or disconnection, he is tapping into the desire we all have to be part of something bigger,” she said. “We can’t dismiss that underlying need that people have to feel a sense of connection and belonging and to be a part of something bigger than themselves.”

Even as some religious leaders oppose Trump’s use of faith, said Henderson, they can’t afford to cede the discussion of faith to the candidate. The outrage expressed by Reid, Scarborough and others shows the debate has spread beyond clergy to liberal Christians in the media and other sectors.

Civil religion promoted in mid-20th century

Brian Kaylor, author of Baptizing America, said mainline Protestants’ role in promoting “God and country” patriotism in the mid-20th century has resulted in religion becoming one more thing tearing the country apart today.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Americans rallied to a broad, consensual civil religion, reflected in the adoption of “In God We Trust” as the national motto and to add “Under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance, Kaylor said.

When translators of one of the most popular English translations of the Bible, the Revised Standard Version, finished their work after 15 years on the job, Kaylor pointed out, they presented President Harry Truman with a commemorative copy of the new translation in a Rose Garden ceremony.

At the time, 90 percent of Americans were Christians and largely viewed religion in a positive light, Kaylor said. Today, 80 percent of Americans say religion’s influence is on the decline, according to a new poll, while more than half of Americans rarely or never darken a church door.

“Civil religion worked in the 1950s and 1960s,” said Kaylor. “It no longer works today.”

Weaponized ‘God and country’

Calvin University history professor Kristin Kobes Du Mez said the “God Bless the USA Bible” is an attempt to fire up those who remain devoted, though even the number of evangelical Christians is declining.

Trump is “going to need every one of those evangelical votes,” Du Mez said.

But Trump may be appealing to “comfort food Christian nationalism,” a version of “God and country” patriotism familiar to older Christian voters who remember the heyday of civil religion.

“It was this more inclusive kind of Christian America—though if you weren’t Christian, you just had to be quiet and go along,” Du Mez said.

In Trump’s hands, that idea has been turned into a weapon, with his Christian followers portrayed as the “real Americans” pitted against not only non-Christians but Christians who don’t share their political views.

“You are either for us or against us,” said Du Mez, author of Jesus and John Wayne.

In this sense, Trump is trying to turn a bygone Christian consensus into a source of power, a message he made plain earlier this year at a meeting of evangelical Christian broadcasters in Nashville, Tenn., telling them, “If I get in, you’re going to be using that power at a level that you’ve never used before.”

Defending democracy or undermining it?

Tobin Miller Shearer, a professor of history at the University of Montana, points out civil religion appealed to faith in defense of democracy. Trump, Shearer argued in a recent essay, is instead using God to motivate people to undermine democracy.

“Regardless of the outcome of the 2024 election, the switch from historical claims of divine authority for democracy to divine authority to challenge democracy is already obvious and apparent,” he said.

Princeton historian Kevin Kruse, author of One Nation Under God, a study of Eisenhower-era “God and country” politics, said some of Trump’s supporters may still recall that earlier version of civil religion and long for that era, even if the former president has a different goal in mind.

When they hear “One nation, under God,” that means “We are all in this together,” Kruse said. “Not—if you don’t toe the line, you are out.”

Viewing Trump as ‘champion’ for evangelicals

Those who see Christianity as important to many Americans are exasperated at the gap between those teachings and the rise of Trump, said NPR political correspondent Sarah McCammon, even those who don’t embrace the Bible or Christianity but know its teachings.

McCammon, whose book The Exvangelicals was prompted by her experiences covering Trump’s 2016 campaign and his surprising hold on evangelicals, said she often gets asked, “How can Christian people think that this is what Christianity is all about?”

“I don’t think most white evangelicals are supporting Trump because they think he’s a devout Christian,” she said. “It’s not because they think Trump is one of them. It’s because they think he will be a champion for them. That distinction is really critical.”

 Even if many Americans no longer read the Bible—Trump’s endorsed version or any other—Christianity still is embedded for many in what it means to be an American. And it remains a force in American culture, McCammon said.

“Flannery O’Connor talked about how Christ-haunted the South was,” she said, referring to the mid-20th-century author from Georgia. “In a way, Christ has haunted America. We can’t get away from that history.”

For his part, Wallis said he still is hopeful about America’s future. During his bookstore talk, he spoke of the short-term goal of saving democracy. But the bigger goal, he said, is to transform the nation into the kind of inclusive community Christians—and all Americans—can share.

Hope is needed to make that possible, he said, turning to the New Testament Book of Hebrews. Faith, he said in quoting that book, “is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

DALLAS (BP)—The Southern Baptist Convention’s Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force met with state leaders to preview the report it will present to the 2024 SBC annual meeting in June.

The group met in Dallas April 9 for a day that included presentations, roundtable discussions and question-and-answer times.

“I’m really grateful for the positive spirit of collaboration and mutual commitment to abuse reform in the room during our meeting today,” Chairman Josh Wester said after the meeting.

“It was encouraging to see leaders from across our convention come together, eager to share and learn from each other as we work to become an abuse-free family of churches. This gives me a lot of hope for the future.”

Kelley Lammers, a therapist and a layperson at a small church in northeast Arkansas, told BP her experience on the implementation task force has been life changing.

“I guess I just always thought the church was immune to major secular issues,” she said. “I’ve had to just do some research and see, oh my goodness, evil is everywhere.

“I had to do an about face, even within my own church and say, ‘You know, we haven’t done these things to protect our church and to care for members who may be around us and may have experienced these things.’ … I’m a therapist and I don’t take that into my church setting like that—the idea that individuals can be revictimized simply by coming into a church setting that isn’t sensitive,” she continued.

“We don’t alter our message or necessarily even alter our ways, but sometimes we just need to alter our heart.”

Step in the right direction

Lammers said the April 9 meeting was another step in the right direction.

“As a therapist, I’m deeply invested in making real change for abuse reform in our convention,” she said. “Witnessing leaders from different corners of the SBC engage in open dialogue, eager to pool our collective wisdom on building a safer environment for our churches, fills me with immense optimism. I think we’re laying the groundwork for a future where churches are proactive in preventing abuse and serious about caring well for survivors.”

Lammers said roughly half of the Baptist state conventions were represented at the meeting, adding that involvement at the state level and ultimately the church level is key.

“Everything important happens at the church level,” she said. “So we wanted to talk to them and invite them in and open the floor for questions. And we wanted to just be transparent and share where we are.”

Progress on goals noted

Task force members shared with state leaders three specific goals they have worked toward in the past year: an online database of convicted abusers; a sexual abuse prevention and care curriculum for churches; and a permanent home for abuse reform within the SBC.

The first goal is nearing the finish line, Lammers said, adding the task force has worked hard to solve the logistical challenges of a database of convicted abusers.

The second goal was realized in the form of the Essentials Sexual Abuse Prevention and Response Training curriculum, unveiled at the SBC Executive Committee’s meeting in February and ready to be launched for all Southern Baptists at the annual meeting.

Lammers said state leaders gave positive feedback about the curriculum at the Dallas meeting.

The curriculum is based on five major pillars for churches regarding sexual abuse—train, protect, screen, respond and care.

Lammers said the curriculum was written with churches like hers in mind—small churches with few full-time staff. It leads churches through the five pillars in a very practical way.

“And it’s not only like ‘this is what you should do,’ but literal examples of phone calls you can make [and] a flow chart a pastor can take,” she said.

“If an allegation occurs, if someone in your church calls the pastor, here’s the first thing you do. Here’s the second thing you do. Here’s the conversation. … Let’s say someone comes into your church who is on a sex offender registry, what do you do?”

The third goal—finding a permanent home for abuse reform—has presented the biggest challenge, Lammers said, and it remains unfinished, though the task force hopes to have “definitive answers” before the annual meeting in June.

‘Came away encouraged and equipped’

Greg Teel, president of the Colorado Baptist Convention and chair of that convention’s Sexual Abuse Prevention and Response Task Force, was at the Dallas meeting. He said he is “grateful to God for the fine work” of the implementation task force.

“I felt we all came away encouraged and equipped to serve our SBC churches and God’s kingdom better,” said Teel, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Delta, Colo.

Teel said the implementation task force “is doing a remarkable job addressing the issues they have been tasked with.”

“In addition, I personally feel certain that I am better equipped to serve Colorado Baptists,” he said. “I know that I have more colleagues in ministry to network and consult with to address Colorado Baptists’ needs.”

The day before the meeting, implementation task force members met on their own as a total solar eclipse made its way over the Dallas area. The group took a break to go up on the roof of a parking garage to witness it.

Lammers said the moment was a reminder of who is ultimately in control.

“Down to the second, the NASA scientists knew when we would see it,” she said. “[God] is in control, but he gives us brains and brilliant people around that can solve problems.

“We can do this,” she said of sexual abuse reform. “We can do this. And not just us, but the SBC, we can do this. … I left the eclipse feeling really optimistic.”

FORT WORTH (BP)—Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary trustees heard reports of renewed financial stability and enrollment growth during their April 9-10 meeting.

“Southwestern Seminary is in a very different place than in September 2022,” said President David Dockery. “All this has happened because of God’s providential kindness to us.”

Board Chair Jonathan Richard said the seminary’s current financial situation is “stronger than it has been in years, and I know that with continued hard work and sacrifice, the financial future is hopeful.”

The board approved a $35.6 million budget for the 2025 fiscal year, a decrease of $300,000 from the originally approved budget for the current year.

Dockery told trustees the seminary is “very hopeful” about ongoing giving to the institution. He noted unrestricted giving is “steady” and temporarily unrestricted giving is “ahead of the last three years.”

The seminary’s operational budget is “in a good place,” more than $1.5 million ahead of the same time last year, he said. Currently, the seminary has $8.4 million in cash “which no one would have imagined this time last year,” he added.

‘From crisis to challenge to stability’

Dockery also mentioned the $3.4 million that was placed in a “quasi-endowment fund” overseen by the board.

“We have moved from crisis to challenge to stability,” Dockery observed.

He added: “We’re not yet at a place where we can call institutional health. We still have work to do to get there.”

The seminary will “continue to work as hard and as wisely and as carefully as we can, but we must not fail to give thanks to God for answering our prayer,” Dockery said.

Dockery noted one-third of the objectives of the Advance Southwestern 2030 institutional plan, which trustees adopted in the spring 2023 meeting, have been completed.

During the meeting, Dockery publicly thanked the board officers for their decision to give him a raise and bonus, which he declined, explaining he wanted all employees to be rewarded while the president should be last.

Richard said Dockery’s actions were “the Lord affirming to me that we have the right man in the president’s office.”

Increased enrollment reported

Dockery reported an increase in enrollment and hours taught. He reported 34,836 credit hours taught in the 2022-2023 academic year, representing an increase of 1,583 credit hours from the previous academic year. Enrollment also showed an increase of 171 students in the 2022-2023 academic year from the prior year.

Dockery noted an increase of 479 credit hours taught in the fall of 2023 compared to the fall 2022 semester, and the 15,821 credit hours taught in fall 2023 also reflected an increase of 1,066 credit hours taught compared to fall 2021.

The spring 2024 academic semester includes 2,711 students, an increase of 71 students enrolled in spring 2023, which was up from 2,561 the year prior, he said.

Dockery said that “uptick in credit hours is the key to our stable tuition revenue line, which is so important for our overall budget.”

He noted the total hours taught for spring 2024 has increased by almost 600 hours over spring 2023—14,709 credit hours taught in the current semester compared to 14,152 credit hours taught in spring 2023. The credit hours taught in spring 2024 represent an increase of more than 1,350 credit hours taught compared to spring 2022.

Citing data from the Association of Theological Schools annual enrollment report, which includes 274 divinity schools and seminaries, Dockery said in the fall 2023 semester, Southwestern moved to 5th in total enrollment and 6th in total credit hours taught.

The increases in enrollment and total credit hours taught make Southwestern 3rd and 4th, respectively, among Southern Baptist seminaries.

Dockery also noted Southwestern was 3rd among all of the ATS institutions regarding the total number of graduates in the past year and 9th concerning the size of the total endowment.

He added no other Southern Baptist school finished in the top 10 in all four categories of number of graduates, enrollment, credit hours taught and endowment. He said the ranking “distinguishes Southwestern in a meaningful way” for which he gave “thanks to God.”

Providing a breakdown of the current student body, Dockery said 23 percent of students are women, while international students make up 26 percent of students. Additionally, 58 percent are online students. He reported 40 percent of students are white, 28 percent are Asian, 21 percent are Hispanic, 5 percent are Black, and 6 percent of unknown ethnicity.

Carl J. Bradford, assistant professor of evangelism, was appointed as dean of Texas Baptist College, the undergraduate school of Southwestern Seminary. His appointment is effective May 6.

Trustees named O.S. Hawkins, chancellor and senior professor of pastoral ministry and evangelism, to the L.R. Scarborough Chair of Evangelism (“Chair of Fire”); Lilly H. Park, associate professor of biblical counseling, to The Hultgren Chair of Ministerial Counseling; Okinaga to the Hope for the Heart Chair of Biblical Counseling; and Joseph R. Crider, dean of the School of Church Music and Worship, to the McKinney Chair of Church Music.

Richard of New Mexico, Robert Brown of Tennessee and Angela Duncan, an at-large trustee, who have served as chairman, vice chairman, and secretary, respectively, were re-elected to one-year terms as officers of the board.

The next board meeting is scheduled Oct. 21-23.

GATESVILLE—Coryell Community Church welcomed around 600 guests to its Gatesville campus for an Eclipse at the Crosses watch party on April 8, to anticipate and experience together the awe of totality. 

Lead Pastor Eric Moffett said most “were from out of town, out of state, and even out of country.” 

Visitors hailed from “New Jersey, California, Washington, Oregon and all points in between” Moffett said, adding he believes the furthest anyone traveled was probably a couple who came from Milan, Italy.

“You do not have a chance very often for the world to come to you, and we did not want to miss that” Moffett said. 

Moffett learned about the large number of totality-seeking visitors anticipated to flock to Texas for this eclipse over a year ago. He immediately recognized the opportunity it would be to have an outreach—“to do something for our community and for our visitors,” he said.

“We’re a community-focused church, and so, we understand our role to be living out the presence of the gospel right here in Gatesville,” he said. “So, we try to share our resources, our campus, everything we have with our community.” 

Moffett explained the church is situated in the perfect location to do something like host a watch party for an eclipse. The campus has a set of three crosses, one 70-foot and two 60-foot, and it overlooks the city of Gatesville.

He knew it would be a prime spot where people would have a great view of the sky and the city. Guests would have plenty of space to spread out around the campus and relax for the day.

An easy sell to share the love of Jesus

“Coryell Community Church is quick to take risks, if it means we’re going to have a chance to share the love of Jesus with somebody,” Moffett said.

So, he brought his idea to church staff and elders, noting: “It wasn’t a hard sell. Everybody was on board immediately.”

The church began planning and putting together the events of the day. And it took pretty much the whole year to pull it all together, Moffett said.

In the end, the church offered access to its playground and gaga ball pit, cornhole, volleyball, horseshoes, crafts and other activities for children and families.

The congregation brought in food trucks from Gatesville and Waco. They also provided live music and entertainment by Christian comedian Adam Bush.

While the church didn’t offer guests overnight parking, they did offer clean restroom facilities to everyone who was registered.

“It went fantastic,” Moffett said.

Once visitors decided to travel to Central Texas to view the eclipse, they looked online for related events in the target area. The church had its event registration up and running on their webpage in January. Moffett said it really started filling up in the past month.

 “A lot of them said they came to us because they were Christian, or they were looking for a family-focused environment,” Moffett said.

Building personal connections

Since people were spread out all through the campus and the aim was for a welcoming low-key environment, the church opted to have volunteers fan out to meet the guests and talk with them versus offering any sort of call to commitment.

Church leaders did offer a time together at the crosses. And right before totality, they shared the gospel from their main stage. Immediately after totality, they held a time of worship and welcomed people to join them, Moffett said.

Each guest received a handout with a map and contact information to reach out if they felt like God was stirring them and they wanted to respond.

The church already has heard from a couple of families who expressed how much they appreciated the event and the spirit they felt while they were there, including most recently, one family from the Bay Area of California, Moffett said.

Coryell Community Church has contact information for those who registered and will reach out to them by email.

Everyone volunteers spoke with was so grateful to the church for offering the event and appreciated the lengths to which the congregation went to welcome them. 

Prayerfully, Coryell Community Church expects the materials and information each family received when they arrived will develop into more contacts and opportunities for spiritual conversations, Moffett said.

And, he added, they trust the Spirit will use that connection in the coming days.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Some Baptist leaders have written to U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson—a fellow Southern Baptist—urging him to support Ukraine in Russia’s war against its Eastern European neighbor.

“As you consider efforts to support Ukraine, we humbly ask that you consider the plight of Christians,” wrote the leaders, who either have ties to the SBC’s Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary or to Ukrainian Baptists.

“The Russian government’s decision to invade Ukraine and to target Baptists and other evangelical Christians in Ukraine has been a tragic hallmark of the war.”

The letter, sent Monday (April 8), was signed by Daniel Darling, director of the seminary’s Land Center for Cultural Engagement; Richard Land, the namesake of the center and a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission; Yaroslav Pyzh, president of Ukrainian Baptist Theological Seminary; and Valerii Antoniu, president of the Baptist Union of Ukraine.

Johnson is a former trustee of the SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, serving when Land—a former commissioner of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom—was its president.

In February, the Senate passed a $95 billion package for funding Ukraine, Israel and other allies, with $60 billion earmarked for Ukraine. But Johnson, whose tenure as House speaker may rely on his handling of the bill, has yet to schedule a House vote on the funding measure.

Conservatives in the House who oppose funding for Ukraine on “America First” grounds, led by U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, have threatened to trigger a vote to remove Johnson from office.

“Speaker Johnson has a really difficult job right now, maybe the most difficult a speaker has ever had,” Darling said in an interview with Religion News Service. “I think he does in his heart want to support Ukraine.”

But Darling noted Johnson, whose office did not immediately respond to the letter, is trying to balance the differing views of House members.

‘For such a time as this’

The Baptist leaders told the speaker in their letter: “We believe that God has put you in this position ‘for such a time as this.’”

Darling said he hopes the letter will serve as an encouragement to Johnson while also ensuring that he and others are aware of religious liberties being violated in areas of Ukraine that Russia has occupied since 2014.

“Evangelicals and Baptists are being mistreated in the Russian-occupied territories significantly,” he said. “We’ve lost probably 300 churches. Pastors are really struggling over there, wherever Russians have taken over.”

Hannah Daniel, the ERLC’s director of public policy, said Southern Baptists long have opposed authoritarian regimes’ prohibitions of religious freedom.

“The resolve of our lawmakers to stand with Ukraine has wavered, despite the brutal persecution of Christians, particularly Baptists, the kidnapping of children, and the destruction of churches because of Russia’s unjust and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine,” she said.

“Congress must look past any hesitation or obstinance and overcome division to swiftly pass such a package.”

Globally, religious freedom experts are concerned about the war’s effects on Ukraine’s faith communities.

“The Russian military has indiscriminately bombed churches, monasteries, kingdom halls, mosques, synagogues, cemeteries, and other religious sites,” said Nury Turkel, chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a quasi-governmental watchdog group, at a hearing in March.

“And the Russian soldiers have abducted and tortured religious figures because of their leadership role.”

Darling said he and the other signatories realize “the details have to be worked out” but they chose to write to Johnson because of their desire to see continuing congressional and U.S. support of Ukraine, even as Baptist entities have spent millions in donations to support refugees now living outside the war-torn country.

“He has said he’s committed to doing it so I think he will,” Darling added. “But we wanted to encourage him as well and not just be another person just throwing stones at him but to say, ‘Hey, we’re supporting you. We care about you.’”

Doug Adair to La Pryor Baptist Church in La Pryor as pastor.

Brandon Hudson resigned as senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Abilene.

Jonathan Wells to New Hope Baptist Church in Aubrey as worship and communications minister.

During spring break, 199 student volunteers from 10 churches completed 11 construction projects through Bounce student disaster recovery, a ministry of Texas Baptists.

Projects included hanging drywall and insulation, painting, installing flooring, demolition and other miscellaneous construction in Houston and Katy.

Residents there continue to recover from the devastating effects of Winter Storm Uri in 2021 and Hurricane Harvey in 2017.

David Scott, director of Bounce, estimated the student volunteers—known as “bouncers”—contributed 2,640 hours of labor over two work days.

Though the results largely were tangible, some transcended the temporal. During their service at multiple sites across town, students recorded 16 spiritual conversations, nine gospel presentations and one decision to follow Christ.

Cultivating a love for missions

Scott noted the importance of seeing young people grow in missions when serving others beyond the church’s walls.

“The thing for me is seeing those kids, seeing that love for missions and ministry cultivated in their lives,” Scott said. “That’s the big win.”

“We have the opportunity to create kids that are going to be missional for life,” he said. “The opportunity to be missional is all around you.”

Palmer Jones, youth minister at First Baptist Church in Stockdale, similarly described the importance of instilling a heart for missions in his students.

“We have so many hearers of the word but not doers,” he said. “I want my youth ministry to be marked by that, by doers.”

While it was initially difficult to recruit students for service over spring break, Jones noted it was just the right time for his group to serve.

“I’m convicted that serving Christ rarely comes with convenience,” he said. “Rather, it is sacrificial. If you give God just three days of your spring break, God is going to bless that.”

Jones saw his students give up their comforts to help others in need.

“I want to teach these students you are going to have to give things up to follow Christ,” he said. “Christ is worthy of that sacrifice.”

Bouncers tallied 42 acts of kindness in Houston and Katy, and additional groups will return to the city later in the year to complete more projects.

Student disaster recovery and church planting trips are scheduled for June and July. Student disaster recovery trips will visit Lake Charles, La., and Mora County, N.M. Student church planting trips will take place in Fort Worth and Seattle, Wash.

Summer trips will include mission work, Bible study time, and worship and speakers each evening. The trips are purposefully pre-packaged so student leaders can focus on their students and serving others.

On the final night of First Baptist Stockdale’s Bounce trip, before heading back home, Jones told his students the mission experience would always stand out.

“You will never forget this trip because what you have done is eternal,” Jones said. “It is kingdom work.”