WASHINGTON (RNS) —Ron Williams is the pastor of Church at the Gym in Sanford, Fla. Its goal is to remove the "stained-glass barriers" for people who might not be comfortable in traditional church settings, Williams said.

"I think all the trappings of traditional religion can make it difficult for people to start coming," he said. "You can invite someone, and they will say, 'I don't have any clothes to wear to church.'"

To make people feel more comfortable, Williams wears jeans. In the warm Florida climate, some members wear shorts. Other clothing types, from urban wear to biker gear, also are welcome.

Sanford native Sandy Adcox, 38, had not been to church in 18 years before she attended Church at the Gym last March. She hasn't missed a service since.

"I've never in my life felt more comfortable in a church," she said. "It's so warm and welcoming."

Comfortable is becoming common as churches take advantage of new, nontraditional spaces in movie theaters, skating rinks, strip malls and old warehouses, among others.

Aaron Coe, vice president for mobilization for the Southern Baptist Convention's North America Mission Board, cited several factors for the shift, including a move away from traditionalism and the economic advantages of leasing space instead of building a church.

"We've seen everything from art galleries to schools," he said. "Schools and movie theaters are probably the most common. There is definitely a trend, and I think it's one that's here to stay."

They may not have steeples or stained glass, but leaders of nontraditional churches say they find success tapping into a segment of society that may otherwise have been lost. At these churches, people in attendance often are greeted with coffee and doughnuts. Rather than organs, church music is more likely to be the tune of guitars.

The Bridge in Flint, Mich., set up in a strip mall anchored by a grocery store. "We do a lot of things that are really different," Pastor Steve Bentley said.

Perhaps the most different: The interdenominational church recently opened a tattoo parlor. "We want to be relevant to people's lives," Bentley said.

The church uses video clips to illustrate its messages on Sundays. "We break with tradition, but we don't break with Scripture," Bentley said. "It's all about presenting the information in a different way."

Church at the Gym is an outlet of Sanford's Palmetto Avenue Baptist Church, which Williams described as a contemporary service that appeals to the baby boomer generation.

Tattoo artist Drew Blaisdell, 46, tattoos Pastor Steve Bentley at Serentity Tattoo that is located in Bentley's church, The Bridge, in Flint Mich. (RNS PHOTO/Mandi Wright/USA Today)

The new church is an even more up-to-date interpretation—an experiment that aims to encourage attendance among the under-40 crowd, he said. "We realized we weren't reaching them," Williams said. "We were losing a generation."

A 2010 Gallup Poll found church attendance on a slight incline: 43.1 percent of Americans reported weekly or almost weekly attendance. Older people were the most likely to attend, while 18- to 29-year-olds were among the least active.

Coe's organization has partnered with Southern Baptist churches across the United States and Canada in forming churches in nontraditional spaces.

"As evangelicals, we don't believe the building is the church; the people are the church," Coe said.

"The building itself has taken on less importance."

Even outside the regular Sunday services, the churches find ways to engage people on friendly grounds. Church at the Gym holds its baptisms in members' pools—events that turn into big backyard barbecues.

"It's exciting," Williams said. "Everyone cheers like we're at a basketball game."

Chuck Culpepper leads St. Alexis Episcopal Church in an old warehouse in downtown Jackson, Miss. In 2006, St. Alexis became the first church opened by the Episcopal Church in Mississippi since the 1960s.

"It began with an idea our bishop had," Culpepper said, to appeal to "unchurched" young adults—those who have no church home and are unlikely to go to the more common big, old church.

The building they picked most recently housed a furniture store. The congregation renovated the structure, which was built in the 1920s, but the goal was to keep the industrial look—exposed brick, high ceilings.

"We didn't want for it to look like a church," Culpepper said.

St. Alexis parishioner Nic Torrence, 26, of Jackson said he came to the church with a friend a few years ago, not really knowing what to expect.

"It wasn't anything like the other churches I had known," he said. "What we do is different. It's informal in a lot of ways, and it's very welcoming."

DALLAS—Leaders of Victim Relief Ministries hope to expand their reach significantly by engaging churches to enlist members who will volunteer to serve as their Neighbors Keepers.

While Victim Relief Ministries chaplains, counselors and crisis responders must complete a 16-hour basic training course and take advantage of continuing training opportunities, a Neighbors Keeper can begin serving after just three hours of training.

"The Neighbors Keeper program uses skills, talent and resources within the church to give comfort, healing and hope to victims," said Edward Smith, deputy executive director of Victim Relief Ministries.

"It is designed to seamlessly integrate the Neighbors Keeper church and the Neighbors Keeper volunteer into the current Victim Relief Ministries system and network the resources to help the victim."

Initially, Victims Relief Ministries is launching the Neighbors Keeper program in several North Texas counties, but it plans to expand in the months ahead.

Gene Grounds, founding executive director of Victim Relief Ministries, sees the Neighbors Keeper ministry as a way for congregations to reach out to the more than 12 million Americans every year who become crime victims.

"Through Victim Relief Ministries, God has given us an incredible platform to work with law enforcement, public safety and emergency management. … Now, the Neighbors Keeper network provides the system to bring it to the doorstep of the church," he said.

Many churches recognize Christ's command to "love your neighbor as yourself," and they respond generously in times of disaster, Smith said.

"But disasters are not the largest ground zero in America—crime is the greatest ground zero in the U.S.," he observed. "A crime is committed in the United States every three seconds. And churches often are at a loss when dealing with crime victims."

Churches provide a continuing presence in communities after police leave a crime scene—but their ministry to crime victims is effective only if church members are equipped and engaged to respond, Smith noted.

The Neighbors Keeper network seeks to show Christ's love through churches to neighbors in crisis by providing relationships and resources to help victims recover, he explained.

In time, leaders hope churches will make financial commitments to the program by promoting the ministry, enlisting volunteers and taking an offering twice a year—on a Sunday in conjunction with National Crime Victims Week in April and on a Sunday near the Sept. 11 terrorist attack anniversary. They envision half of each church's offering devoted to local needs and half supporting the organization's widespread work.

For more information about Neighbors Keeper, email edwardsmith@victimrelief.org or call (972) 234-3999.

DALLAS—Dallas Baptist University students spread the gospel and served people in need during spring break. Seventeen students traveled to Pensacola, Fla., to help build a house for a family through Habitat for Humanity, while an 11-member team traveled to South Padre Island to participate in Beach Reach and minister to fellow college students on spring break.

When the Habitat for Humanity team arrived in Florida, "there was just a foundation slab, and when we left, it looked like a house, with doors and windows," said Christy Gandy, director of global missions at DBU. "It is neat to know we played a huge role in providing a place for a family to live one day."

While DBU has participated in spring break mission trips with Habitat for Humanity for the past 23 years, this was the first time for many of the students on the trip to help build a house.

For two days of the project, DBU student Jacob Winslager worked alongside a young man named Robert. Winslager began talking with Robert and learned his family would be receiving one of the houses built by Habitat for Humanity during the week.

"Robert would walk through the incomplete house with a huge smile on his face," Winslager explained. "He would walk in each room and just smile as he observed every detail of what our hands had just put together … imagining what he would put in each room and how he was going to arrange everything. He received a great joy from a great blessing."

Led by Andrew Briscoe, DBU's director of service learning, projects during the week included framing the house, decking the roof to prepare for shingles, wrapping the house in preparation for siding and preparing the inside of the house for insulation, plumbing and electricity.

Dallas Baptist University student Jessica St. Hubert helps build a house with Habitat for Humanity.

"I had no idea how much hard work it takes to build something as simple as a home held together by precisely placed nails and pieces of wood," DBU junior Kristin Autry said. "It's a great feeling when you leave the house site at the end of the week, knowing you helped build this home for someone when it was just a slab of concrete when you arrived."

The DBU team working in South Padre Island joined 700 other volunteers from 22 other Texas churches and BSMs to offer the college students on vacation free middle-of-the-night rides from the beach, along with late night and early morning breakfasts. They also spent portions of their days trying to meet people and praying for them.

The team returned home with stories of ways they saw God working in other college students lives, even seeing some of their new friends come to faith in Christ.

"Beach Reach is honestly one of the most impactful things I've been a part of in my life, said BSM Director Chris Holloway.

"I think more than even the students we went to reach, the lives of those on our team have been changed and shaped for the better. We were so stretched in this ministry, and the lessons we learned are something we don't want to end—ministry doesn't end when we get home."

The Lakota of Bridger, S.D., now have fresh eggs available in their neighborhood at about half the cost, and young women in Helena, Ark., are learning business and leadership skills while earning an income to help their families.

At the Delta Jewels project in Helena, Ark., young women create jewelry to sell. The products are marketed online, and some are sold through home "parties." (CBF PHOTO)

Although the cultures and circumstances are different, these two groups benefit from a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship initiative to improve the lives of people in the nation's 20 poorest counties.

Begun 10 years ago, Together for Hope works for change in the economic and social systems of those counties by working with local agencies, organizations, churches and individuals. The initiative targets one county in both Alabama and Louisiana, two in both Arkansas and Kentucky, three in Mississippi, four in South Dakota and seven in Texas.

In 2011, the 10th anniversary of CBF's 20-year commitment, an estimated 10,500 volunteer units—the number of volunteers times the number of days each worked—served about 54,000 people, according to the initiative's interim director, Chris Thompson of Liberty, Mo.

But the true measure of the success of any program aspect is community, Thompson emphasized.

"We're not a mission opportunity provider," he said. "It's serving and working with the community … in developing programs as the community develops."

The initiative centers on the four "R's" of community development—reciprocity, relationship, reconciliation and respect—and on six core values—local visioning, leadership, project development, long-term sustainability, local experience in education and engagement, and an emphasis on process rather than on outcome.

The approach builds from existing resources, skills and goals in local communities. Residents determine the goals they want to reach, prioritize them and develop appropriate strategies.

"Community is about relationships. We work alongside (people) not for them. Because we are process-oriented, or how we do it, we may not see results for a generation," Thompson explained.

The initiative works to help communities change circumstances that developed over generations. The processes needed to change those circumstances also have to take place over time.

The 20 targeted counties are the initiative's first objective, Thompson explained. But a secondary objective always has been in mind.

"We want volunteers to take those things they've learned in the focal counties and bring those back to their churches, to their areas … to their own communities," he added.

"Churches see the value of asset-based principles."

Volunteers assisted the Bridger Lakota to build a chicken coop and to get the business started. The Lakota community operates and manages it. "They are now empowered to reduce the price of food for the reservation … and now there is a better market," Thompson said.

The young women artisans at Delta Jewels each give a tithe on the sale of their creations and then decide on someone or a project to benefit. They take home 50 percent of the proceeds to help their families, and the remainder is used to purchase supplies to make more jewelry.

Both projects lift their communities. "Poverty is reduced by attacking root causes," Thompson said.

And for Together for Hope, the basis for change always will be relational.

"It's the relationship that's important—to listen and share the person's story and to hear the voices silenced by circumstances. We must be a part, be a presence in people's lives. Sometimes that's a challenge."

MIDLAND—Neikedra Butler was accustomed to uncertainty, but that didn't make things any easier.

She and her children, Crissean, 14, Keyana, 10, and Alayjhia, 7, were trapped in a cycle of poverty and occasional homelessness. Butler struggled to make ends meet while she worked at a sandwich shop, cared for her children as a single parent and tried to pursue her education.

Neikedra Butler, with her youngest daughter, Alayjhia, teaches her children that education is essential. Butler is a graduate of the Buckner Family Place program in Midland, where she went from homeless to self-sufficient. She now works as a respiratory therapist for Medical Center Hospital in Odessa.

In 2008, she lived in her grandfather's home with several other family members. Her grandfather died that spring and willed the house to Butler's aunts. So, she and her children had to find a new place to live. The cheapest apartment she could find cost $1,000 a month, and she just couldn't afford it. She put their things in storage and moved her family into a hotel.

"I got us a room for the length of time that the money would last," Butler said. "And then every one or two days we'd spend in the car so I could collect more money in order to get another room."

She was accepted into the respiratory therapy program at Midland College and planned to start classes in the summer of 2008. With college on her horizon, she focused on getting her children through the 2008 school year and finding a safe place to sleep every night. When her sister offered her a place to live in Corpus Christi over the summer, she moved her family south and started her education online.

They returned to Midland at the start of the fall semester, and Butler attended classes on campus. She and the children continued living between hotels and the car, often spending their nights parked in convenience store parking lots or truck stops. They scraped by from day to day, relying on convenience store meals and looking forward to sleeping in beds again.

"They were living out of the trunk, basically," said Anna Rodriquez, director of Buckner Family Place in Midland. "She would wake the kids up really early in the morning, get them cleaned up in the gas station bathroom, drop them off at school and then go to class herself."

Butler lived in fear that Child Protective Services would find out about her circumstances and take her children away. She didn't know where to turn, until she heard about Family Place, a residential program for single mothers enrolled in a vocational or educational program. She knew it was the break her family needed. She applied and was accepted.

They moved in, and everything changed. Butler didn't realize how much the instability had affected her family and her outlook. One of the professors at Midland College told Rodriquez that before Butler came to Family Place, she was awful to be around. Her attitude was bad, and she was unpleasant.

"It was because she was under such constant, extreme stress all the time," Rodriquez said. "But the difference between Neikedra before and after Family Place was like night and day."

There, she had the support she needed to focus on studying and becoming an example for her children. Her attitude and outlook were transformed completely.

"Buckner is like a relief," Butler said. "That's what it took for me. It was off my shoulders, where I didn't have to worry about where we were going to lay at night or anything like that. They gave me a foundation, a home. Everything else from there took off."

Butler did well in school, Rodriquez said. She took her state board exams in fall 2010 and found a job at the Medical Center Hospital in Odessa in October that year.

She moved out of Family Place and has been self-sufficient ever since. Her family has a stable living situation, and Butler has the skills and confidence she needs to be a great parent and provider.

But she hasn't stopped there. Butler has been accepted into Texas Women's University in Dallas for a bachelor's degree in respiratory therapy. She plans to move to North Texas and begin her degree program after her children finish this school year in Midland. She continues to check in regularly with the staff at Family Place and keeps them updated on her life and her plans.

"We're so proud of where Neikedra is today," Rodriquez said. "She's an excellent example to any woman who goes through our program of what can be accomplished."

To learn more about Buckner ministries for single-parent families, visit www.buckner.org, or call (214)758-8000.

McConnell nominated for CBF moderator-elect. A Knoxville, Tenn., layman has been nominated as moderator-elect of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Bill McConnell, immediate past deacon chair at Knoxville's Central Baptist Church of Bearden, will be recommended for election at the CBF General Assembly June 20-23 in Fort Worth. If elected, he will serve a first year as moderator-elect and then succeed Missouri pastor Keith Herron as moderator in 2013-2014. The current moderator is Colleen Burroughs, executive vice president of Passport, a camp program.

Carver to lead NAMB chaplaincy. Maj. Gen. Douglas Carver, retired U.S. Army chief of chaplains, has been appointed executive director of chaplain services for the North American Mission Board. Before retiring last summer, Carver spent 38 years in the U.S. Army—27 as an Army chaplain. In 2007, he became the first Southern Baptist in 50 years to be promoted to chief of chaplains for the Army. In that post at the Pentagon, he was responsible for 2,900 chaplains in the active Army, the Army Reserves and the National Guard.

Loper resigns from medical- dental group. Fred Loper, executive director of the Baptist Medical Dental Fellowship, announced his resignation effective May 31. Loper served the fellowship nearly 10 years, first as associate executive director and then as executive director. During his tenure, he led the group to establish multiple strategic partnerships, both nationally and internationally. Loper plans to continue his ministry in health care as medical director of a charitable Christian medical clinic in the Oklahoma City area. In his letter to the fellowship board, he cited his passion to work with the urban poor in the final phases of his career to be a driving force in this new affiliation. The Baptist Medical Dental Fellowship has formed a search committee for its next executive director and is accepting letters of recommendation and resumes of interested parties via email at bmdf@bmdf.org.

Endowed scholarship fund at Mercer honors Allen. An anonymous donor made a gift to Mercer University to establish an endowed scholarship fund in honor of longtime Baptist leader Jimmy Allen. It benefits students participating in the school's Mercer On Mission program, which provides international service-learning opportunities. Allen is a former president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas and the Southern Baptist Convention, and he was president of the Southern Baptist Radio and Television Commission. Most recently, he has served as coordinator of the New Baptist Covenant, an informal alliance of more than 30 racially, geographically and theologically diverse Baptist organizations from throughout North America. He has served as pastor of churches in Texas and Georgia. He earned his undergraduate degree from Howard Payne University and master's and doctoral degrees from Southwest-ern Baptist Theological Seminary.

—Compiled from wire services

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Do not confuse the upcoming film Blue Like Jazz with Christian market movies.

"A Christian movie genre has formed. Our first goal with this movie is that we didn't fit into this genre," director Steve Taylor said.

Author Donald Miller, who wrote the 2003 best-selling book Blue Like Jazz, from which the movie was adapted, agrees.

"We wanted to show that movies about the faith struggle that millions of Americans deal with don't have to be cheesy," he said. "They don't have to have bad actors. They don't have to be low-budget productions. They can compete with other films at the box office.

"Most Christian artists, if we're really honest with ourselves, we want to be accepted by other creatives who are not people of faith, just general-market folks."

If it's acceptance they are looking for, Taylor, 54, and Miller, 41, have found a measure of it in the secular world. The film will be distributed by Roadside Attractions, which markets such decidedly nonreligious films as Winter's Bone and I Love You, Phillip Morris, an unusual endorsement for a faith-based product.

Blue Like Jazz premiered March 13 to respectful reviews at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, an increasingly important venue for independent films. The film hits theaters April 13.

Loosely adapted from Miller's autobiography, the film follows a young Texas teen as he leaves his conservative church and enrolls in the aggressively secular and whimsically liberal Reed College near Portland, Ore. His faith is tried as much by the hypocrisy of his home church as by the new ideas around him.

Taylor, well known in contemporary Christian music circles, has made a career out of addressing church hypocrisy.

"I think it always comes better when it's from the inside than from the outside," he said. "So many of our critics think we are too blind or dumb to know" hypocrisy.

That—in addition to the film's swearing, drinking and a lesbian character—is why Miller expects more pushback from the evangelical world than from secular critics.

"The average Christian wants clean answers, clean characters—'I was bad, then Jesus happened to me, now I became good.' Not, 'I grew up in church and I saw a lot of hypocrisy and I walked away and I realized God exists outside of church.'"

Selling more than a million copies and spending months on bestseller lists, Blue Like Jazz revolutionized the evangelical world when it was released in 2003.

At one point, LifeWay Christian Stores flagged Miller's book—and several others—with a special warning to readers that the contents "could be considered inconsistent with historical evangelical theology."

"I remember thinking that this guy understood the Jesus I worshipped," said Mike Kruger, 36, of Washington, D.C. "He got the type of Christianity I was seeking. I didn't need the sanitized Jesus that the evangelical church of the 1990s and early 2000s was pedaling. I wanted a real Jesus—one who was messy and could deal with the messiness of my world."

Like thousands of others, Kruger donated to help fund the movie after an appeal appeared on the crowd-funding website Kickstarter.com. More than 4,000 people donated more than $350,000, the highest response Kickstarter has seen to date.

Eugene Cho, 41, the lead pastor of Quest Church in Seattle, understands the appeal.

"Even if you might not agree with everything, there's something about how the author, Donald Miller, is really welcoming people into conversation and thought that really appeals to people,'' he said.

Miller hopes the movie has similar impact as the book, showing people they aren't alone in difficult spiritual struggles.

"There are other people who deal with these things: the space between the church and the world, the pulls from either side," he said. "Not just the church and the world, between a mom and dad, between love and sex, between faith and doubt—all those places. More people than we know live in those spaces."

Cho sees another message encouraging all Americans, not just religious people, to interact with groups different than themselves.

"We tend to live in this very polarized world and we're seeing this more so in this election season," he said. "Particularly from a religious point of view, we tend to eventually gather with those who think like us, look like us, feel like us. It doesn't do us any good."

Estate gift endows dean's chair at Truett. A gift of more than $3 million from the estate of former ExxonMobil executive Charles DeLancey of Houston established the Charles J. and Eleanor McLerran DeLancey Endowed Chair for the dean of Truett Theological Seminary at Baylor University. The Delanceys were members of Tallowood Baptist Church. Charles DeLancey died April 4, 2011, at age 92. He was preceded in death by his wife of 55 years on Nov. 3, 2004. In addition to Truett Seminary, the DeLanceys supported Baylor University through gifts to the President's Fund, the McLane Student Life Center and many other areas across the university. For their decades of support to Baylor, they were recognized in the 1845 Society, Old Main Society, Endowed Scholarship Society and Friends of Truett.

New site set for retired ministers retreat. The Baptist General Convention of Texas will hold its annual retreat for retired ministers Sept. 17-21 at a new location—the Inn of the Hills in Kerrville. Previously, the event was held at Glorieta Conference Center near Santa Fe, N.M. The gathering for Bible study and fellowship will feature BGCT Executive Director David Hardage and Don Newbury, humorist and former Howard Payne University president. Mack Roark, retired professor from Oklahoma Baptist University, will lead the Bible study, and Don Blackley, director of the Singing Men of North Central Texas, will lead worship. Registration is limited and costs $15 per person or $25 per couple. The meeting is open to all retired Texas Baptist ministers and their spouses. For more information, contact the Texas Baptist Missions Foundation at (800) 558-8263. For hotel arrangements and pricing, call (800) 292-5690.

Ferrier named to development post at BUA. Debbie Ferrier, immediate past chair of the Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board and a long-time trustee of Baptist University of the Americas, has been named the school's director of development and campaign initiatives. She will continue to live in Houston. Ferrier, who was elected second vice president of the BGCT in 2002-2003, also has served on the governing boards of Texas Baptist Laity Institute, Texas Baptist Committed and BGCT committee on nominations, as well as in numerous leadership roles with Cooperative Baptist Fellowship—both nationally and in Texas—and Union Baptist Association. Her ministries at Tallowood Baptist Church in Houston have included being director for Woman's Missionary Union, Girls In Action and women's ministries and serving on the pastor search committee. When she lived in San Antonio, she was missions pastor at Trinity Baptist Church.  

Marketplace Chaplains reaches milestone. Ticomix, headquartered outside of Rockford, Ill., recently became the 500th company to employ Marketplace Chaplains as part of its employee benefit package. Founded 28 years ago by Gil Stricklin, former youth evangelism director for the Baptist General Convention of Texas, Marketplace Chaplains—a division of Plano-based Marketplace Ministries—employs more than 2,600 chaplains who care for about half a million employees and their family members.

• Tom Campbell has completed an interim pastorate at Spring Hill Road Church in Aubrey.

• Chris Cooley to First Church in Bay City as youth minister from Pleasant Grove Church in Rosebud, where he was minister of music and youth.

• David Draper to Lakeside Church in Breckenridge as pastor.

• Rudy Fambrough to Crescent Heights Church in Abilene as pastor, where he had been interim.

• Shawn Finney to First Church in Justin as youth/education minister.

• Adam Hatley has resigned as youth minister at First Church in Paducah.

• David Jones to First Church in New Boston as interim music director.

• Harry O'Brown to Mulberry Springs Church in Hallsville as youth minister from Bethel Church in Jefferson, where he was pastor.

• Waylan Owen has completed a term at First Church in Wichita Falls as interim minister of education.

• Larry Rice to First Church in Redwater as interim pastor.

• Dick Sawyer to New Hope Church in Marshall as interim pastor.

• Kevin Schutte to Myrtle Springs Church in Quitman as minister of music.

• Justin Southall to Southside Church in Brownwood as student pastor.

• Quinn Stanfill to First Church in Texarkana as minister of music.

• Greg Trotter to Friendship Church in The Colony as interim pastor.

• The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor will hold its 73rd annual Easter Pageant April 4 at 12:30 p.m., 3 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. Performances will be held in front of the Luther Memorial arches. The free event attracts 5,000 visitors each year and includes participation of almost 200 university students, as well as children from the community.

• A 4xFour evangelism clinic will be held April 26 from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. at the Bell Association offices in Belton. Registration is $15 and can be completed at www.texasbaptists .org/register.

• Hardin-Simmons University has named several new trustees: Randel Everett, Jud Powell, Louise Jones and Keith Griffitts.

• Howard Payne University raised more than $5,000 to help send the university's Winds of Triumph musical group to perform at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. HPU raised the money through a concert by the band, along with guest vocalist Hazel Miller, the university's jazz ensemble and Heritage Singers. Winds of Triumph will join only four other U.S. university musical groups invited to perform at the Games.

• Carolyn Stevens has been crowned Miss East Texas Baptist University. She is a junior nursing major from Kirkland, Wash. She received a $1,000 scholarship and the opportunity to represent the university at upcoming events.

• Justin Gandy has joined the faculty of Dallas Baptist University as assistant professor of management. He served as director of the Center for Service-Learning and as an adjunct faculty member since 2008. He and his wife, Christy, attend Hillcrest Church in Cedar Hill.

Anniversaries

• First Church in Odem, 100th, April 28-29. A picnic will be held at the local park on Saturday. A lunch will follow the Sunday worship service. An afternoon service of singing, testimonies and fellowship begins at 2 p.m. Willis Moore is pastor.

• Friendship Church in Beeville, 105th, April 29. A meal will follow the morning service. Phil Russell is pastor.

Deaths

• Weyman Rodeheaver, 78, Jan. 18 in De Kalb. A longtime minister at churches in Georgia, Missouri and Texas, he was copastor of Liberty Hill Church in De Kalb at the time of his death. Two wives, Rebecca and Sarah, preceded him in death. He is survived by his wife, Sue; sons, Daniel and Weyman; daughters, Carla Cameron, Elise Moore and Amy Caraway; 14 grandchildren; and 34 great-grandchildren.

• J.C. Chambers, 73, Feb. 15 in Marshall. He was pastor of New Hope Church in Marshall at the time of his death. A pastor more than 40 years, he served churches in Texas, Iowa, Missouri and Kansas. He previously was pastor of Pope City Church in Woodlawn and County Line Church in Harleton. His wife of 42 years, Irece, died in 2001. He is survived by his sons, Marshall, Lynn, James and Weston; daughter, Cheryl Cryer; brother, Finley; sister, Rebecca Evers; 12 grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren.

• Lilah Ward, 90, March 22 in Oklahoma City. The wife of a pastor, she served alongside him at Lake Highlands Church in Dallas, First Church in Plainview, First Church in San Antonio and First Church in Sherman, as well as churches in Oklahoma, North Carolina and Florida. She taught Sunday school until a week before her death. She is survived by her husband of 70 years, John; son, Monty; daughter, Harmony Ward; two grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

• Max Pettit, 89, March 26 in El Paso. A graduate of Baylor University and Southwestern Seminary, he served as a missionary to the Chinese people in China, the Philippines and Taiwan until 1954, when he returned to Texas. In 1957, he moved to Oregon, where he was pastor of various churches until returning to Texas in 1968. He was pastor of Kemp Street Church in El Paso many years. Until his death, he was involved with the Chinese community in El Paso and ministered to members of Grace Chinese Church there. He also helped visitors and new arrivals from China and others interested in ministering to the Chinese people. He was preceded in death by his wife, Dorothy. He is survived by his sons, Edward Pettit, Russell Hicks, James Pettit, Kenneth Hicks and David Pettit; daughters, Cecilia Grossman and Carole Petiet; brothers, Glenn and Bill; 10 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Ordained

• Ron King and Ron Davis as deacons at Salt Lake Church in Rockport, Feb. 12.

• Mike Loveday and Oscar Guerra as deacons at First Church in Odem, Feb. 26.

Church Events

• The Heights Church in Richardson will hold is fifth annual car show April 21 from noon until 4 p.m. The show is open to the public, and spectator admission is free. Show car registration is $15 or 15 canned goods. Proceeds will benefit the Network Food Pantry of Richardson. Last year's show featured 218 entries and raised more than $4,000 in cash and 600 canned goods.

• Phil Tilden, after 71 years as a pastor in California and Texas.

• East Cisco Church, Cisco; April 15-18; evangelist, Herman Cramer; music, Jim Andrews; pastor, C.T. Floyd.

Turkey cited for religious freedom woes. Turkey stands as a new and controversial addition to an annual list of the worst offenders of religious freedom released by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Four of nine commissioners objected to adding Turkey to the list of Countries of Particular Concern—a who's who of dictatorships and closed societies—and a fifth commissioner is second-guessing his vote to include the NATO ally. But some Greek Orthodox Americans are pleased with the decision, citing longtime abuses against Orthodox Christians in the historic heartland of Eastern Orthodoxy. Congress established the independent watchdog panel in 1998 to monitor religious freedom globally. It recommends countries to the State Department for inclusion on its own annual list of worst offenders, which typically is smaller. This year, the commission's list includes 16 countries, two of which are new—Turkey and Tajikistan. The others are Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Uzbekistan, Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Turkmenistan and Vietnam.

Coptic Orthodox church leader dies. Pope Shenouda III, the longtime leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church, died March 17 at age 88. Shenouda, the 117th Patriarch of Alexandria, ruled 41 years amid great political turmoil and was an outspoken advocate for Christians in a predominantly Muslim nation. Shenouda spent more than three years in exile in the desert monastery of St. Bishoy after then-President Anwar Sadat stripped him of his powers for criticizing violence against Copts by Islamic extremists. President Hosni Mubarak freed Shenouda in 1985. More recently, Shenouda presided over a period of danger for his flock as militant Islamic groups targeted Copts following Mubarak's downfall a year ago. Coptic leaders say there is no timetable to pick Shenouda's successor.

Nonbelief on rise in England. Christianity is waning in England, and nonbelievers could outnumber Christians within 20 years, according to a new study by the British Parliament. The survey showed 41 million Christians in Britain, down nearly 8 percent since 2004. Meanwhile, the number of nonbelievers stood at 13.4 million, up 49 percent over the same period. Researchers at the House of Commons Library concluded Christianity had declined to 69 percent of the population, while those with no religion increased to 22 percent. The research was based on the government Office for National Statistics' annual labor force survey, considered authoritative because it examines a sample size of 50,000 people. The Religion in Great Britain survey also found that from 2004 to 2010, the number of Muslims in Britain grew by 37 percent to 2.6 million. England's Hindu population rose by 43 percent to 790,000, and Buddhists by 74 percent to 340,000.

Business magnate trumps Bible on financial advice. When it comes to financial advice in these tough economic times, more Americans today would rather take advice from business mogul Donald Trump than from the Bible. According to a recent survey conducted by two biblically oriented nonprofits, 50 percent of Americans would choose Donald Trump as their financial adviser, despite his history of filing for bankruptcy, and only 32 percent look to the Bible. "The Bible offers sound advice about managing money, avoiding debt and prospering in difficult times," said Lamar Vest, president of the American Bible Society, co-sponsor of the survey, but 94 percent of Americans are unable to pinpoint the verse from Proverbs about these themes. The survey also found 86 percent of Americans do not follow what the Bible says about managing money, and 24 percent of those think they would have more money if they did follow that advice. The survey was timed to coincide with the release of The Financial Stewardship Bible, an integrated study guide that highlights more than 2,000 verses that discuss money and finances.

Exodus still ongoing globally for Jews. One in four of the world's Jews has migrated from one country to another, compared to 5 percent of Christians and 4 percent of Muslims who have left their native lands, according to a comprehensive new study on religion and global migration by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, which tracked the journeys of the world's 214 million migrants. No other major religious group approached the 25 percent migration rate of the Jews, said Phillip Connor, senior researcher on the study. On average, he said, only 3 percent of the world's population migrates. Of the 13.3 million Jews worldwide, 43 percent live in Israel and 39 percent live in the United States. Although Jews claim the most dramatic migration rates, their small numbers mean the vast majority of migrants belong to other religious groups. Christians make up nearly half of all international migrants—49 percent—according to the study, even though they make up a third of the world's population. Of all Christians alive today, 106 million have switched countries, and their top destination is the United States.

LOLITA—Members of First Baptist Church in Lolita discovered spring break mission trips don't have to be far away to be fulfilling, Pastor Dennis Phariss said.

Volunteers (left to right) Carol Roome, Joey Bonnot and Jonathan Ainsworth from First Baptist Church in Lolita cut boards to repair rotting lumber in a church member's home.

Toward the end of last year, a church leadership team set a goal of intentionally looking for opportunities to expand the congregation's ministry outside the walls of the church, he noted. Initially, the focus was on a possible mission trip to help in ministry along the border of Mexico.

Soon, however, the focus grew much closer as the church learned about the needs of a mother and daughter within their own membership.

"They are really quiet, and no one knew of their need," Phariss said. "And they're not the type to say."

Volunteers (left to right) Justin Johnson, Chris Meir and Sharon Bonnot from First Baptist Church in Lolita pressure-wash siding for a needy church member's home.

After the need became known, however, a project in Lolita was the only consideration.

"Before we went across the state, we figured we'd better meet the needs across the street," Phariss said.

The woman's husband, who does not attend the church, has not been able to work the last two years due to medical problems including a brain tumor that was removed. That had limited the family's physical and financial resources to maintain their home.

Initially, the belief was that most of the problems were due to a shifting of the home's foundation due to drought.

During the three days the congregation worked on the home, they replaced the ceilings in three rooms, sealed a two-inch crack in the foundation, replaced rotted lumber and pressure-washed the outside.

Joey Bonnot and Carol Roome from First Baptist Church in Lolita work on repairing the interior ceiling of a church member's home.

Work remains to be done, however, and Phariss said those projects will be taken care of soon.

"We went out there expecting a nice, little chicken-fried steak, and what we discovered was a 24-ounce sirloin," he said. But it's not more than the congregation can chew.

The church of about 70 members had 20 helping during three days of work.

"Basically, if they didn't have to be at work, they were there," he said.

The congregation already has made plans for a workday at the South Texas Children's Home.

"We've discovered this church has a passion for getting out and helping and we need to continue to tap into that," Phariss said.