PADUCAH—If cleanliness is next to godliness, Gilbert Mercado wants First Baptist Church in Paducah to be the most godly church around. He’s been the custodian there more than 40 years.

Mercado started cleaning the church facility when he was a high school student in 1970.

He also began attending the church and has missed few Sundays since then. He was baptized there in 1972 after making a profession of faith in Christ.

Pastor David Williams, who has only been at the church a few months, said Mercado has been a blessing to him.

“I don’t have to tell him how to set up for a meal. He asks how many, I tell him and it’s done. I tell him to fill the baptistery, and he asks how high,” Williams said.

When Williams moved into his office, he recalled asking Mercado where to put the empty boxes. Mercado told Williams he would handle it, but at Williams’ insistence, he finally pointed the way to the dumpster. When the time came to make the trip, however, Mercado was there to take the boxes—he wouldn’t let Williams carry them.

“I don’t have to be concerned about what he’s doing,” Williams said. “He came under Brother Bob Beck, and I think he trained him very well. Every pastor since then has been blessed by Gilbert. He wants to be a servant to the pastor. He wants to be a servant to everyone.”

Roy Donaldson has been chairman of the deacons for several stints during Mercado’s tenure.

“One of the things I will always remember about Gilbert is when we were out of a pastor, and I was chairman of the deacons. I came up here one Monday morning, and he got me over in a corner and said: ‘I guess you’re my boss now until we get another pastor. You just tell me what to do, and I’ll do it.’

“What I told him is what I feel about him to this day. I told him: ‘You know more about what needs to be done and how to get it done than I ever will. So, you just be your own boss,’” he recalled.

Mercado never has asked for anything during those 40 years, including a pay raise, Donaldson noted. The church has been faithful to give Mercado what he needs to do his job, however, because the congregation knows how important it is to him.

“Most jobs of his type, you have a Sunday school teacher or somebody complain: ‘They’re not cleaning my room. There’s dust on this or that. My trash didn’t get dumped.’ In all these years, I can’t remember a single complaint. Not one from anybody,” he said.

Not only is Mercado meticulous in his cleaning, but he also is careful to live a life that demonstrates Christian character, Donaldson said.

“He practices a lot of Christian principles in the way he lives his life. … He’s instilled the word of God into the way he lives his life, and his family can see it and his church family can see it.

DALLAS—Dallas Baptist Association recently improved its online CityServe system to link community needs, church resources and volunteers.

Congregations and individuals who use the upgraded online resource may appreciate the way the association has made it easier to post needs and respond to them. Most will know nothing about the Meet the Need management system that makes it possible.

That’s exactly the way the man who spent 10 years developing and testing the system wants it.

“Meet the Need is behind the scenes. The community and members of the congregation need to know about the church’s heart for ministry—not ours,” said Jim Morgan, founder and executive director of Meet the Need.

In 2000, Morgan worked as a strategist for an Internet consulting firm. His job took him on the road most weekdays, but he wanted to become more involved in community ministry on weekends through his local congregation, North Point Community Church in suburban Atlanta, Ga.

However, he discovered the rapidly growing church lacked the ability to link members to volunteer opportunities effectively.

“I was disappointed, and God put it on my heart to take what I had learned working with Fortune 500 companies and apply it to the church,” Morgan said.

“As long as we are still living in the 1980s in terms of how we use technology, the church can’t do as much as we should be doing and accomplishing as much as God intends.”

Using emerging technologies related to online shopping and social networking, he developed a computer system to help his church make needs known and mobilize members to meet those needs.

Morgan worked about two years on the design and another two years piloting the system. He recognized the system’s effectiveness could grow exponentially more effective as additional churches and ministries posted needs and Meet the Need operated as the hub to manage the information.

With the backing of some key donors who saw the system’s potential, Meet the Need was founded as a nonprofit ministry committed to making its tools available to churches and groups of churches at minimal cost. For churches that average 500 or fewer in attendance each week, annual cost is $100. Larger churches are charged on a sliding scale.

Meet the Need licenses its software to churches and runs through each church’s website. Participating churches have access to outreach software and services, including a call center, as well as a database and search engine that allows people to decide when and where they want to volunteer. An account management and reporting system helps churches track needs and responses.

Meet the Need launched in South Florida last year and is expanding to three other areas—including Dallas—this year. In 2012, Morgan hopes the program will be ready to become national in scope.

Jana Jackson, director of family and community ministries at Dallas Baptist Association, had been working the last couple of years to post volunteer opportunities on the associational website as a resource for churches that want to schedule a service project day.

“We found it worked better if churches could go to our website and see dozens of options,” she said. “I was OK with what we had but not entirely satisfied.”

Through a local network of nondenominational churches, she learned about Meet the Need and its outreach management system.

“It offers our churches a much broader selection of opportunities for service” when they visit the association’s CityServe section of its website, Jackson said.

Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas saw Meet the Need’s system as a way to help engage members not only in service opportunities externally, but also internally through Sunday school classes and on-campus programs, said Brandon Boyd, associate minister of missions.

“We are going to use it as a resource for our members to become involved in missions opportunities throughout the community through our ministry partners, as well as responding to volunteer needs on our campus,” Boyd said.

Morgan sees the Meet the Need technology as a tool with tremendous potential, but its impact depends on how churches and their members respond once needs are identified.

“All we can do is fix the process issue. Meet the Need can facilitate the initial interaction. But it’s up to churches to go out and serve,” he said.

SAN ANTONIO—Braving sweltering 100-degree summer heat, 56 men, women and children from Acton Baptist Church in Granbury spent a week at Baptist University of the Américas in San Antonio to renovate a 50-year-old building and lead a Vacation Bible School for neighborhood children.

“One of the greatest things we can do is to try to be like Jesus and try to help others,” said Pastor Glenn Ward, recently named director of missions for Paluxy Baptist Association.

“We’ve been doing this since 1979, and it’s always the highlight of the year. I love to give my talent and skills to contribute to ministry work.”

The team painted, repaired air conditioning units, moved walls, and removed and replaced plumbing fixtures. They also staffed Vacation Bible School.

“Wherever there’s a need, we go,” said Amy Briggs, leader of the VBS team.

“In recent years in Juarez, Mexico, we built a school house, a clinic and a tortilla factory. A few weeks ago, we went to Joplin, Mo., to help clean up tornado wreckage. We always think we’re going to be a blessing wherever we go, but we always end up being more blessed—and that happened at BUA, too.”

BUA President René Maciel disagreed.

“Even though the Acton folks could, in many ways, see how they were blessing us—by the electrical wiring run and the walls moved in the construction project and by the ear-to-ear smiles and thoughtful questions of the children at the VBS—their gifts went far beyond that,” Maciel said.

“They brought a spirit of encouragement, ears willing to hear the story of how this school is changing lives to change our world, hearts eager to learn how to pray for us. They left with good words to share with others about what God is doing here. We were the ones most blessed.”

Team member Bill Stone concluded he could not have found a better way to spend a summer week.

“If I could do things over, I would have started doing these missions trips 10 years earlier,” Stone said. “From the outside, this may look like too much work. But from the inside, the experience is very rewarding. You won’t know until you’ve done it.”

Michael McCarthy, chief financial officer at BUA, praised the team for their hard work and positive attitudes.

“The spirit of the mission team was great. They worked hard and were a phenomenal example of what it means to be on mission for Christ,” McCarthy said.

“They were an encouragement to our entire body of students and staff.”

The upstairs apartments in one building, constructed in the 1960s, “were in dire need of restoration as were the student and fitness centers on the first floor,” McCarthy noted.

“We’re extremely grateful for the labor and materials that First Baptist Church Acton provided for BUA. We could not have attempted this project without their help.”

MESQUITE—Singer Josh Havens and guitar player Matt Fuqua met in 2000 while working at a coffee shop in Mesquite. After each discovered the other was an aspiring musician, they decided to put their talents to good use—entertaining customers with their musical stylings and forming a Christian rock band.

More than a decade later, The Afters have garnered Dove Awards and their songs have been featured on multiple television shows.

But in spite of their rapid success, band members have stayed grounded by keeping the spotlight focused on Christ at their concerts and remaining true to their Texas roots.

In addition to Havens and Fuqua, the band is made up of bass player Dan Ostebo and drummer Jordan Mohilowski. Their group name was suggested by MercyMe’s lead singer Bart Millard.

“The Afters was a term used in the British Isles when class structure started to break down about 200 years ago,” Fuqua explained.

“The servants would have an after-party, and the nobles would often mingle with the servants. In public, they wouldn’t recognize each other, but in that one place and time, they were all equals. We thought that was a really neat idea for our name to remind us that God sees all people the same.”

During their concerts, band members often share important lessons about relying on their faith in Christ to sustain them during life’s trials and struggles.

Light Up The Sky CD cover

The songs on their newest album, Light Up The Sky, are designed to help listeners realize God’s glory is evident all around them. For starters, all they have to do is look up at the sky.

“We wrote the song ‘Light Up The Sky’ after a really challenging time,” Fuqua said. “Looking back, we could see how God was working, and we were never alone. God’s fingerprints were all around us, in big and small ways. We just needed to remember to look around us.

“We’ve heard a lot of stories about how lives have been changed after hearing this song. People are sharing how God is moving in their lives, and they are being drawn closer to him.

“For youth going through tough times, struggling to find their identity and wondering if they really do matter, we want them to realize that they do matter because God loves them and he will never leave them.

“Through our music, our goal is connect people to Christ and help people realize how much they need a relationship with him.”

NASHVILLE, Tenn.—Singer/songwriter Sara Groves is on a mission—to help audiences gain a deeper understanding of God’s love for his children. And by doing more than just singing songs at her concerts, she is challenging Christians to grow in their walk with Christ.

“When I’m performing concerts, I feel a specific calling to challenge people to take that next step with God, because every single person has a place to go in their walk with Christ,” Groves said.

Sarah Groves

“I’ll discuss different issues and then pose questions like: ‘What are we doing to make an impact on others? Are we being fully devoted followers of Christ? What areas in our lives are we holding back from Christ? If we really applied the gospel at every level of our lives—friendship, marriage, parenting—what would that be like?’ 

“I sometimes feel that God puts harder subjects on my heart, so it’s not a typical concert experience. I want to encourage people to explore God and who he is.”

To encourage people to reach out and make a difference in the lives of others, Groves often shares information about various mission organizations at her concerts.

Her husband, Troy, documented several of their mission trips and relief efforts for the Nomad Show, a reality film series that chronicles the experiences of young missionaries serving around the world.

In April 2009, Groves traveled to Washington, D.C., on behalf of International Justice Mission to advocate for victims of human trafficking, meeting with congressional aides.

As a result of her social advocacy, Groves was selected as a delegate to attend the Lausanne Congress on World Evangelism in Cape Town, South Africa. The goal of the event, founded by Billy Graham and John Stott in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1974, is to promote unity, humility in service and a call to action for global evangelization.

Desiring to meet needs in Jesus’ name, Groves recently had the opportunity to partner with prison ministries and performed two concerts for more than 1,000 women inmates.

She noted the women there defy stereotypes and do not fit neatly into any single category.

“This is always the biggest surprise for anyone who visits. Our prison populations are made up of a diverse group of men and women who are in desperate need to hear the gospel and have their lives changed,” she said.

“Each experience and mission trip has taught me so much about how many people are hurting around the world and need to hear about Christ’s love.

“I was just a typical soccer mom well into my suburban life when God convicted me that I wasn’t being the Good Samaritan. If anything, I was being like the man on the other side of the road. It was then that I realized I needed to take action, step out of my comfort zone and share Christ’s love with those in need.”

EL PASO—Journey of Faith Community Church in El Paso doesn’t have a building of its own, but that doesn’t stop church members from ministering each year to the families in their area through Vacation Bible School and sports camps.

Last year, 261 children participated in the combination VBS and sports camp. This year, the 106-degree heat and blustery winds lowered that number, but more than 200 children still attended, Pastor Herb Mims said.

Each day, workers arrived about 7 a.m. to set up tents in a park near the school where the church met for services. Since the activities took place in a public park instead of church property, the tents had to be set up and taken down daily.

Each morning kicked off with gathering the children for singing, like many other Vacation Bible schools. After the music, children chose their activity—basketball, soccer, flag football or volleyball. Typically, a child stayed with the same sport each day for the entire week.

Volunteers planned activities especially for preschool children during the sports activity portion of the morning.

“It takes a lot of volunteers from outside our church family,” Mims said. Many of the volunteers are teachers and coaches who are off from their paying jobs during the summer and volunteer to help the congregation of about 50, including its own children.

“This is a cooperative effort between us and the community,” he said.

This marked the seventh year the church has held a Vacation Bible School—all without having a church facility.

The first year, Mims and others distributed 6,000 flyers telling about the VBS that would be held at his home. Twelve children came.

Gayle Hogg, a retired pastor, teaches a Bible lesson to children at an outdoor Vacation Bible School and sports camp sponsored by Journey of Faith Community Church in El Paso. (PHOTOS/Courtesy of Herb Mims)

“We asked ourselves why the children didn’t come. We realized quickly that people don’t send their children to strangers’ homes,” Mims recalled.

The next year, in an effort to attract more children, the church added the sports camp and changed the venue to a public park.

The number of children tripled and  continued to grow until heat slightly withered the crowd this year, Mims noted.

Each year also seems to draw at least one family to the church as well, he said.

“We always baptize people as a result of this,” he added.

Participants make the connection between the weeklong sports camp and the church that sponsors it.

“The great thing is the park is so close to the school where we meet. We can point and say, ‘That’s where we meet,’” Mims said.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (RNS)— After Auburn University’s football victory over Clemson last season, coach Gene Chizik declared, “It’s a God thing.”

After the national championship game win over the University of Oregon, he told a national TV audience, “God was with us.”

Chizik sees the hand of God working in his life, even in the outcome of college football games.

“The faith part is what’s really important in my life,” Chizik said. “That guides us and keeps us grounded as we navigate this crazy world of college football. If you win, everybody tells you how great you are, and you’re probably not that great. If you lose, everybody tells you how terrible you are, and you’re probably not that terrible.”

Chizik was hired as Auburn’s head coach in 2008 despite a 5-19 record in two seasons at Iowa State. Cam Newton arrived as a quarterback savior for the 2010 season, won the Heisman Trophy and helped Auburn win the national championship.

Chizik describes all of that in a newly released memoir, All In: What It Takes to Be the Best, from Tyndale House.

“All In is a story about football, family and faith,” Chizik said. “Those are three things that are important in my life.”

In the 265-page book, written with sportswriter David Thomas of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Chizik tells how he didn’t expect to get the Auburn job and describes the wrenching emotions of leaving his recruits behind at Iowa State.

“That’s something that just weighed on my heart so much it tore me up,” Chizik said. “The guy you recruited, he’s thinking, ‘You told me you’d be here.’ Everything I told them, I told them with a pure and good heart. At the end of the day, you have to make decisions that are best for you and your family.”

While Chizik was raised a Roman Catholic, his wife, Jonna, was raised a Methodist. While he worked at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, they began attending an evangelical church.

“It’s a big part of who I’ve become,” Chizik said. “One of the things we don’t do, we don’t push anything on our young men when it comes to the message.”

He does, however, try to mold them into morally responsible young men. “I was blessed to have a platform to influence young people.”

Chizik doesn’t spend much time writing about the controversy surrounding Newton’s decision to come to Auburn, although he gives some anecdotes about how he tried to spur Newton into being a better player.

During the championship run, it emerged that Newton’s father, Cecil, a church pastor in Georgia, had tried to shop his son to Mississippi State University, requesting money from boosters for him to sign there.

The NCAA found no evidence of any impropriety in his recruitment to Auburn.

Chizik admits he had no idea how good Newton was going to be, nor how controversy over his recruitment would hang like a fog around the program as it rose to amazing heights.

“You don’t know what a quarterback is going to respond like until you put him out there in front of 90,000 people,” Chizik said. “We knew we had a very talented, athletic quarterback. How he’s going to respond to those circumstances, you don’t know. By game four, we knew what he could do.”

Although Newton had a run-in with the law over a stolen laptop while he was Tim Tebow’s backup at Florida, Chizik said he and his staff researched Newton’s character and came away impressed.

“It became clear to us that this was a great kid,” Chizik said. “If we were all judged based on mistakes we made when we were younger, a lot of us would be looking for work.”

Cam Newton weathered the controversy without missing a game, completed a season for the ages and became the top pick in the NFL draft. Chizik said he remains committed to running a clean program and turning out men of moral character.

“It’s all about educating players,” Chizik said. “Ultimately, these guys have to make the right decisions for the program and their families. We tell them, ‘If you encounter something that doesn’t look right, doesn’t smell right, you need to turn and run.’”

Chizik feels optimistic about defending the title next season.

“I feel good in terms of people,” he said of the team. “We’re into building this foundation for a long time. This is one brick in the foundation.”

And, he added, the pressure to win hasn’t lessened because of the national championship. “The pressure’s always there to win,” he said. “The standards are always high.”

Chizik sums up his philosophy on the final page of his memoir.

“Championship rings are nice, but they are nothing compared to what God promises for those who are all in for him.”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—For Living Faith Lutheran Church, the name change was as much about the future as the past, as the congregation formally bid goodbye to its old name, Crusader Lutheran Church.

“We’re not saying (Crusader) was a bad name,” Pastor Sandra Cox Shaw said. But now, “our name will no longer be a stumbling block for people who want to visit us and get to know us.”

Comments about the church’s “militaristic” and “non-Christian” name reached a “critical mass” last year, said Michael Lidell, a former parish lay leader. Concerned about the church’s reputation, Lidell suggested a name change at an administrative meeting in May 2010.

But the process of renaming the church turned out to be complicated. Few local churches had changed names. So, leaders learned as they went along, hosting town hall-style meetings, learning how to file for a new charter and how to change the website.

After a yearlong process, the 140-member congregation held its “Renaming Celebration” recently.

“We affirm that we go on into the future a newly named entity but with the same mission,” Shaw said.

While Living Faith’s story might be uncommon, it is not unique. The seemingly mundane topic of a church name has become a flashpoint for U.S. congregations, with many renaming themselves in recent years for pragmatic, theological or even cultural reasons.

Some Baptist churches, for example, have removed the “Baptist” from their names, including Two Rivers Baptist Church in Nashville, Tenn., which now attracts 1,000 worshippers each Sunday to the Fellowship at Two Rivers.

It’s not just a megachurch phenomenon; some smaller Baptist churches remain Baptist, even if it’s not in the name.

“It is an epidemic” said Bill Leonard, professor of Baptist Studies at Wake Forest Divinity School in Winston-Salem, N.C., citing the success of nondenominational churches and the lack of Baptist loyalty as driving the trend.

Leonard also noted the Baptist brand has been tarnished by controversial claimants like the anti-gay—and independent—Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan.

“A number of churches on the left and the right are concerned that people are turned off by the Baptist name,” Leonard said. “They believe that in the public square, Baptists have looked shrill, unwelcoming, sectarian.”

Church name changes also can mark a shift in the outlook or message of a congregation. When the First Reformed Church in Allendale, Ala., voted to change its name to Lighthouse Community Church in 2004, large sections of the congregation resisted.

“It didn’t go over well,” said Steve Demers, who became the church’s pastor shortly after the change. He added the church lost about a third of its congregation over the renaming.

More recently, the Lighthouse congregation decided on yet another change—to break away from the Reformed Church in America, a move that Demers said was tied to the earlier name change.

“We wanted the name to say something. Many people won’t attend (Reformed churches) based on preconceptions of what Reformed means,” Demers said. “The whole stigma of denominations has proven divisive.”

The renaming process at Living Faith Lutheran Church also sparked differing opinions in the pews.

“People felt very passionately on both sides of the issue,” Shaw said. “Some felt tied to the name of the church in which their children were baptized and married … (and some) understood ‘crusade’ as a crusade against poverty and oppression.”

Still, the lure of a new name often wins out. Lidell said Living Faith’s new name “much better reflects what’s happening within our church.”

BELTON—Ministers should “go for the gold,” not settle for peanuts, Paul Powell told the annual conference for Texas Baptist bivocational and small-membership-church ministers and their families.

Powell, dean emeritus of Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary, spoke at the conference July 8-10 at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. He recalled a newspaper article from 1981 detailing a West Texas gold discovery—the “richest gold strike in America” at the time. Previously, the owner of the property had used the land to grow peanuts.

“It occurred to me that there are a lot of churches like that farmer,” Powell noted. “God has given to them and to us a golden opportunity, and in the midst of that golden opportunity, we are raising peanuts. We’re doing precious little considering the possibility of those fields.”

Powell encouraged conference participants to use the opportunities God has given them and work hard for his kingdom through evangelism, discipleship and missions. The fields are ripe with harvest, but the laborers are few.

“As a pastor, your mission—your goal—ought to be to get the maximum yield out of your field,” he said. “We never should be satisfied to raise peanuts. We need to go for the gold.”

To achieve that, Powell said, ministers must be committed to growth, open to change and willing to work hard. Without zeal to see non-Christians converted and willingness to put forth essential effort, the golden opportunity is lost.

“Let me remind you that there’s not only gold out there in that field, there is gold in you, … and you need to put it to use in the kingdom of God,” he said.

The conference featured plenary sessions—including four in Spanish—on topics ranging from biblical interpretation to issues pastors face. Funds from the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas Missions helped sponsor the conference and a related student event held concurrently for ministers’ children.

The conference included a banquet celebrating 25 years for the Texas Baptist Bivocational and Smaller Membership Ministers and Spouses Association, an organization connecting more than 3,615 small-membership churches across the state.

Lisa Moser, a student at Truett Theological Seminary, received a $1,000 scholarship from the association to further her education in ministry.

In business, the conference elected its officers: president, Richard Ray, pastor of First Baptist Church in Wink; vice president, David Keith, pastor of Carlton Baptist Church in Carlton; second vice president, Charles Lavine, pastor of Terrace Acres Baptist Church in White Settlement; secretary, Rosalind Ray of Fairy Baptist Church in Fairy; and treasurer, Danny Rogers, pastor of Lebanon Baptist Church in Cleburne.

• Kim Bartel to Herty Church in Lufkin as pastor.

• Roye Blackmon to First Church in Glendale as pastor.

• Jimmy Bryan has been called as minister of missions and adults at First Church in Lewisville.

• Jason Burden to First Church in Nederland as pastor from Dorcas Wills Memorial Church in Trinity.

• Bob Dellinger has resigned as associate pastor of youth at Tabernacle Church in Ennis to start a church in the Austin area.

• Bobby Fortner to Northside Church in Plainview as pastor.

• Rex Harrell to Georgia Camp Church in Crockett as pastor.

• Hector Iracheta has resigned as pastor of Iglesia Nueva Vida in Pearsall.

• Kevin Landis has resigned as pastor of Celina Bible Church in Celina.

• Tim Lyles to Southland Church in San Angelo as minister of music from First Church in San Marcos.

• Joe Maresh to Sherwood Shores First Church in Gordonville as summer youth minister.

• James Moore to Fairview Church in Sherman as pastor.

• Waylan Owens to First Church in Wichita Falls as interim minister of education.

• Dwain Pollard to Carlisle Church in Trinity as pastor.

• Russ Ponder to First Church in Farwell as pastor from First Church in Hamlin, where he was student pastor.

• Jeremy Smith to First Church in Lipan as youth minister.

• Glenn Ward to Paluxy Association as director of missions from Acton Church in Granbury.

Correction: Our original posting incorrectly said Russ Ponder had resigned at First Church in Hamlin to become pastor at First Church in Farwell. He was student pastor in Hamlin, not pastor.

• The Heart of Texas Literature Center at Howard Payne University distributed 3,500 children’s books among the center’s sponsor organizations recently. The literature center reviews children’s books throughout the year in a quarterly journal and the Children’s Literature Comprehensive Database, used nationwide by librarians as a selection tool. At the distribution event, the books received from publishers were passed on to the center’s sponsors. HPU is one of only two universities in the United States that houses this type of children’s literature review center.

• Christy Gandy has been named director of global missions at Dallas Baptist University. She had been DBU’s assistant director of spiritual life. She is a member of Hillcrest Church in Cedar Hill.

• Ellen Fineout-Overholt has been named dean of the East Texas Baptist University department of nursing.

Anniversaries

• Craig Lloyd, fifth, as pastor of Southlake Church in Waxa-hachie, July 1.

• George Solis, 30th, as pastor of Primera Iglesia in Waxahachie, July 4.

• Keith McGee, 15th, as minister of music and worship at First Church in Denton, July 22.

• Greg Allen, fifth, as pastor of Kentuckytown Church in White-wright, Aug. 6.

• Stephen Wilhite, fifth, as minister of music of First Church in Howe, Aug. 6.

• Jerry Henry, 10th, as pastor of Sadler Church in Sadler, Aug. 12.

• Oak Grove Church in Burleson, 100th, Aug. 12-14. A dinner will be held at 6 p.m. Friday, along with children’s activities, singing and words from James Leo Garrett. A meal also will kick off the activities at noon on Saturday. The Cooks will lead a gospel sing-along, and Skip McNeal will speak. Sunday morning, Bruce Corley will preach, and Jimmy Nelson also will participate in the service, along with Rebekah Naylor and Bruce Troy. Steve Beckwith is pastor.

• First Church in Plains, 100th, Aug. 14. A breakfast will be held from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. A meal will follow the celebration service that morning. Patrick Hamilton is pastor.

• Wilshire Church in Dallas, 60th, Aug. 28. Copies of a book recounting the church’s history will be sold that day. Baptist historian Bill Leonard will preach. A reception will follow the evening service. A historical display featuring still images, video and audio will be available. A reunion of the sanctuary choir will be constituted for the morning service. A reunion of former youth choir members and orchestra members will perform in the evening service. George Mason is pastor.

Retiring

• Wayne Ford, as pastor of Allison Church in Allison, June 26. He served the church 32 years. During his 54 years of ministry, he also served as pastor of Shiloh Church near Richland Springs, Patillo Church in Lipan and Cross Cut Church in Callahan County. He served as interim pastor at Rocky Creek Church in Brownwood, First Church in Lipan, Huckabay Church in Stephenville and Morgan Mill Church in Morgan Mill.

Death

• Moveta McLaughlin, 84, June 29 in Garland. A graduate of Hardin-Simmons University, she was a teacher and counselor in Dallas 30 years. She and her husband, John, conducted marriage enrichment retreats many years. He was employed by the Baptist General Convention of Texas as an ethnic work consultant in the church training division. She taught Sunday school more than 30 years at First Church in Rockwall, but most recently was a member of Wilshire Church in Dallas. She is survived by her husband of 64 years; sons, Weldon and Travis; daughter, Kellye Magee-Brim; brother, Bill Wallace; 11 grandchildren; and 11 great-grandchildren.

Event

• First Church in Paducah held a retirement reception  June 26 to honor Ilene Robertson for playing the church’s piano and organ more than 80 years.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)—Richard Land and Jim Wallis discuss the national debt and possible solutions in a new online video tackling military spending, taxes, welfare programs and entitlements.

Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission , and Wallis, president and CEO of Sojourners , agreed in the video on Bloggingheads.tv that the national debt, which has reached more than $14 trillion, is a moral issue. But they differed on how to solve it.

Bloggingheads.tv is a website filled with split-screen video entries of two people from remote locations dialoguing about the issues of the day—also known as "diavlogs."

Wallis, who is part of an effort called the Circle of Protection that aims to preserve government programs for the poor, called for cuts in military spending and higher taxes for the rich.

"Half the deficit is because of tax cuts for the wealthy and two wars financed off the books," Wallis said.

Land said entitlements are one of the major reasons for the deficit, stating that $700 billion was spent in 2010 on welfare and aid programs. Absent fathers and single parenthood, he said, are the main cause of poverty. Getting rid of no-fault divorce laws, he said, "would help."

"Single parenthood is the largest cause of poverty in the United States," Land said. "Children who grow up with two parents have enormous advantages in our culture and unfortunately they are now a minority."

Wallis interrupted to remind Land, "You and I are both for marriage."

Land continued to speak on the importance of parenthood: "It's a moral and an economic issue, Jim—$700 billion dollars a year in means-tested welfare services mainly to replace absent fathers and what they would provide for their families."

Land said entitlements "are at an unsustainable level" and are another large part of the reason for the deficit.

"We have one-size fits all entitlements and we can no longer afford those," Land said. "We're going to have to find a way to—I don't know whether you want to call it means test or whether you want to call it taxing the benefits of those who are wealthier—but people who have other retirement that they've gotten through their companies or through IRAs, people who have other retirement income are going to have to get less from Social Security."

Both men agreed waste must be cut from spending. Wallis called out the Pentagon as "the biggest waste" when it comes to spending, while Land challenged all government departments to examine and reduce their budgets.


"There's no budget that's ever been conceived that can't take a five percent across-the-board cut," Land said. "I guarantee you there's five percent waste in every program that the government is using, and we can start by a five percent cut … and I believe they could do so without any serious problem in delivery."

Wallis agreed that entitlements needed to be addressed and proposed raising Social Security taxes on the wealthy. He also pointed to mortgage tax deductions for the wealthy as a potential source of revenue.

"$8.5 billion in low-income housing is on the cutting block," Wallis said. "$8.4 billion — same amount of money — is being kept for mortgage deductions on second vacation homes for the wealthy. That's a choice. What choice should we make there?"

Land said he "certainly would be against" mortgage tax deductions for second vacation homes.

While Congress continues to debate over how to solve the national debt crisis, Land and Wallis agree that something must be done soon to stop the government's borrowing trend.

"We're borrowing 42 cents of every dollar that our federal government spends," Land said. "We're stealing our children and our grandchildren's future by that level of borrowing…. They'll spend most of their productive lives paying off our debts unless we get this debt monster under control and get federal spending under control and do so quickly."

Whitney Jones is a student at Union University in Jackson, Tenn., and an intern with Baptist Press.