• Six Texas Baptist affiliated entities will be host sites for the Global Leadership Summit Aug. 11-12. Entrepreneurs, authors and other Christian leaders will speak live to more than 200 sites across the United States and 300 other sites around the world. Among the Texas sites will be Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Baylor University in Waco, East Texas Baptist University in Marshall, First Church in Athens, Valley Ranch Church in Coppell and Lake Pointe Church in Rockwall. The cost of the conference ranges from $75 to $269. For more information, go to www.willowcreek.com/summit.

• The Baptist Student Ministry of San Jacinto College-Central will hold a reunion Aug. 13 at the BSM building. Former directors George Loutherback, Steve Packer, Burt Purvis and Ted Gross will attend. The event will celebrate 40 years of ministry on the campus and honor Loutherback for his long service in student work. A Facebook page has been set up for the event. A $15 barbecue dinner requiring reservations will be held at 5 p.m. For more information, e-mail Carolyn Knight Head at carolyn0707 @yahoo.com.

• The Hispanic Baptist Evangelists of Texas will hold an evangelism conference Sept. 9-10 at the Hereford Community Center in Hereford. General sessions will begin at 7 p.m. Confer-ences are slated at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 10. Featured evangelists include Gilbert Her-rera, Sammy Fuentes, Josue Tapia, Ruben Hernandez, and Gordon and Minnie Molengraf. Musicians are Ralph Gallegos Jr., Daniel DeLuna and Noelia Cavazos.

• The annual "No Need Among You" Conference will be held Sept. 15-17 at the Crestview Community Center of Crestview Church of Christ in Waco. The conference is designed to meet the needs of church and community leaders who are looking for practical, biblical ways to empower their neighborhoods, as well as those in their community who struggle in poverty, unemployment, addiction, homelessness, trafficking and other issues. There will be five plenary speakers and about 25 workshops. On Saturday, there will be several ministry tours and "Bridges Out of Poverty" training. On Sunday, Mission Waco will hold its annual "Walk for the Homeless" at 8 a.m. Sunday also will mark the 19th anniversary service of Church Under the Bridge. Conference sponsors include Mission Waco, World Vision, Baylor School of Social Work, Crestview Church of Christ, Baptist General Convention of Texas, Mission Cy-Fair, Buckner Children and Family Services, Waco Baptist Regional Assoc-iation and Baptist University of the Americas. Registration information, including cost, can be found at noneedamongyou.net.

• Emily Dean has been named director of Hardin-Simmons University's Center for Literacy and Learning. The center has been a primary dyslexia resource base for the Big Country and much of west central Texas for more than 20 years.

• Breckenridge Village of Tyler has promoted Jim Anderson to associate executive director. He will be responsible for overseeing the daily operations of the assisted living community and the organization's adult day program. Anderson has served as the campus administrator for BVT since 2004. He is a member of Green Acres Church in Tyler.

• Guadalupe Street Coffee, the nonprofit coffee house of Baptist Child & Family Services in San Antonio, has been recognized by Metro Health as a Por Vida! restaurant. The designation means the coffee house menu offers nutrious meals that help adults and children make healthier food choices.

• The Marshall Regional Arts Council has presented East Texas Baptist University with the 2011 Partners in the Arts Award. Through the years, many ETBU staff and faculty have served in leadership roles in the organization, whose mission is to support, promote and encourage participation in the arts.

• Jordan McKinney of Paris has been named the recipient of the Timothy Trammell Scholarship at Dallas Baptist University. The scholarship is awarded each year to a biblical studies major.

Anniversaries

• First Church in Duncanville, 65th, July 23. Keith Brister is pastor.

• Steve Leatherwood, 20th, as pastor of First Church in Rowlett, Aug. 7. Jerry Poteet will speak. A meal will be held in his honor at noon. He also is chaplain of Rowlett's fire and police departments as well as the high school football team.

• 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 and Bruce Troy. 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. Steve Beckwith is pastor.

Retiring

• Marvin Griffin, as pastor of Ebenezer Church in Austin, July 31. He served the church as pastor 42 years. He also served at New Hope Church in Waco 18 years.

Event

• Cheryl McGuinness, wife of the first officer of American Airlines Flight 11 that was flown into the North Tower of the World Trade Center Sept. 11, 2001, will speak at First Church in Baytown Aug. 28. She also is the author of the book Beauty Beyond the Ashes. Bill Yowell is pastor.

Revival

• First Church, Gonzales; Aug. 7-10; evangelist, Robert Barge; music, Jeff Gore; pastor, Chris Irving.

GWERU, Zimbabwe (ABP) – The principal of the Baptist Theological Seminary of Zimbabwe has been fired for refusing to accept changes made to the school’s governing documents including adherence to a Southern Baptist Convention faith statement that forbids women from serving as pastors.

Henry Mugabe

Henry Mugabe says he received his termination letter after he concluded a sermon he preached at his church’s revival service on Saturday, July 2. According to a series of e-mails and scanned documents forwarded to Associated Baptist Press, the controversy stemmed from conditions for transfer of school property from the SBC International Mission Board to the Baptist Convention of Zimbabwe.

A spokesperson for the International Mission Board in Richmond, Va., said July 28 the IMB was not involved in the matter and referred questions to the seminary council of the Baptist Convention of Zimbabwe.

The official reason for Mugabe’s termination is insubordination, based in part on his refusal to meet with a new council formed by the Baptist convention to replace the seminary’s board of trustees. Mugabe, who is unrelated to Zimbabwe’s strongman president Robert Mugabe, said the dissolved board of trustees, not the convention, were his employers and he was under no obligation to attend a meeting he considered unconstitutional.

After locking Mugabe out of his office and giving him seven days to move from his home, owned by the Baptist Mission of Zimbabwe, convention officials reportedly froze assets for the seminary, blocking Mugabe from paying a 16-member staff and other seminary expenses.

The Alliance of Baptists, a progressive body in the United States that has supported the Baptist Seminary of Zimbabwe through its Bridges of Hope Mission Offering, wired a portion of the needed funds. Mary Andreolli, the group’s minister of outreach and communications, delivered the rest when she traveled to Zimbabwe for an on-site assessment in late June.

“Learning what I have learned about Henry’s situation and the Baptist Convention of Zimbabwe agencies the Alliance has supported in the past is both shocking and disheartening,” Andreolli toldABP in an e-mail interview from Zimbabwe. She faulted the International Mission Board for using assets to “manipulate impoverished people and systems in the name of global missions.”

The disciplinary hearings that Mugabe refused to attend centered on his decision to enter into a relationship with the University of Zimbabwe to provide teaching certificates for seminary graduates to help them supplement meager ministerial incomes in the impoverished nation.

Friends of Mugabe say the arrangement was never an issue before, and the convention leaders' real motive was to change the school from an ecumenical seminary with students from a variety of denominations to an institution focused on granting master’s and doctor’s degrees to Baptist ministers in partnership with an SBC seminary in the United States.

Another issue, they say, is to guarantee that the Baptist Seminary of Zimbabwe shares theology with the SBC, including an article in the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message that dictates “while both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.”

A new seminary charter, drafted without input from Mugabe, requires all academic staff “to subscribe to the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message upheld by the Baptist Convention of Zimbabwe, IMB and the Southern Baptist Convention.”

A new mission statement describes the seminary as “dedicated and covenanted to biblically educate and train God-called men to be pastors and women to be auxiliary, spiritual leaders in other varied ministries.”

It amends a prohibition against non-discrimination in hiring or accepting students to add “with the exception of denominational affiliation” and names the president of the Baptist Convention of Zimbabwe as the seminary’s “official legal authority” and requires the principal to report to him.

Mugabe, who was first employed by the seminary in 1984 and named president in 1996, accused the convention of unfair labor practices for changing terms of his employment contract unilaterally. The convention president said since the convention elected the old board of trustees, it had a right to dissolve it without his approval. Mugabe’s lawyers are appealing the termination to Zimbabwe Labour Court.

Tom Graves, retired president of the Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, called Mugabe’s firing “a tragedy of epic proportions.” Mugabe has taught at BTSR as a visiting professor almost since the Virginia seminary’s opening in 1991 and stayed as a guest in Graves’ home during the month of January many of those years.

“Henry is one of the best-trained African theologians of any denomination and a recognized leader among Christian thinkers worldwide,” Graves said. His firing, Graves said, “may well serve the agenda of Southern Baptist fundamentalists, but it ill serves the future of Christian ministry in the nation of Zimbabwe.”

Gregg Fort, the IMB representative to conventions in Zimbabwe, said in one of the e-mails forwarded to ABP that it appeared the Zimbabwe Baptist Convention “does not want to walk further down the road towards an ecumenical school focused on students from a variety of church backgrounds nor defined by a relationship with the University of Zimbabwe.”

“I personally applaud the convention for pursuing a Kingdom vision of creating a sound conservative Baptist leadership base for ministry within and without Zimbabwe,” Fort said. He advised Mugabe that “one would need to search one’s soul, sense of calling and whether one can function within the confines of the established authority of the convention as it is currently led by its elected leadership.”

Mugabe earned his Ph.D. in theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., and has taught at U.S. schools including BTSR, Campbell University Divinity School, McAfee School of Theology and Wake Forest University Divinity School, all theological education partners of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

Peter Mutisya's smile said it all.

Terrance Ganaway, Lisa Sliwinski, Troy Baker and Taylor Douthit from Baylor build a fence at St. Kizito Child Care. (PHOTOS/Baylor University)

Through the efforts of a 47-member Baylor University Sports Ministry Team that was making its third annual pilgrimage to Kenya, Mutisya and his family had their house rebuilt in a single day after it was destroyed in a fire that swept through the slums outside of Nairobi.

"When the house burned down, we had lost all hope. We lost all we had in the fire," Mutisya said. "But now we have a smile back on our faces. … We thank all who have worked in making this day the most memorable in our lives and that of the entire community. We will live to pray for their success in whatever they do."

No matter how much success they've had on their trips into Kenya, few things can compare to rebuilding a person's home, participants in the mission trip agreed.

Qian Zhang from Baylor shares her faith with a member of the Kenyan Junior National Volleyball Team after a match. (PHOTOS/Baylor University)

Bryce Petty from Baylor teaches quarterback skills at Mountain Park Academy in Nakuru. (PHOTOS/Baylor University)

"One of the most touching things I experienced there was to help a man put together his house," said Terrance Ganaway, a senior running back for the football team. "He lost a lot of possessions, probably photos and family things that he had for his kids, because everything is precious to them. So, just to sort of piece back together some of the things he had lost was the most memorable thing I experienced when I was there."

Jordan Rice from Baylor shares shoes with a boy from the Mukuru slums, along and a note from a child in Waco. (PHOTOS/Baylor University)

"You knew there was a house that used to be there," said Brooke Biddle, a senior on the equestrian team. "And it was just ashes and nothingness. We went into Mukuru and saw where the houses had been burned down. … So, seeing the site where we rebuilt the house, that was a pretty big 'Wow!' moment."

Baylor's return trip to Kenya, which included 36 current or former student-athletes, rekindled some relationships built through the first two visits, sparked some new connections and impacted their own lives as much as the ones they touched along the way.

"To get to give something that is staying while we're gone is really neat," said Baylor Athletics Chaplain Wes Yeary. "It was a rebuilding that brought such hope to those that were so discouraged. And then for me, it's always neat to watch our student-athletes and how they give and serve and work and love on others … to see the tenderness of their hearts and see them respond to the needs that are around them is just special for me."

Meghan Murphy and Selby Polley of Baylor feed street kids breakfast.

Even before they arrived in Nairobi, one of the key words was flexibility. What was scheduled as a "light" first day of visiting the Kizito Orphanage turns into a six-hour work day of repairing the fence around the facility.

"We were able to buy the supplies to rebuild an entire fence for less money than it cost to buy the supplies to make our lunches today," soccer player Lisa Sliwinski wrote in the team blog at http://kenyasports11.wordpress.com.

"This was the first fence I have ever helped to build from the ground up, and these are by far the most welcome blisters I have ever earned."

Whether involving seasoned veterans like Lindsay Palmer, Melissa Jones and Bryan Swindoll or first-time newcomers, visits with the street children in Nairobi were a sobering experience. Joining with local pastor Boniface Mwalimu, the Baylor group made two early-morning trips to feed the street children —many of them addicted to sniffing glue to the mask the hunger pains. Arriving before the crack of dawn, they intentionally tried to reach them before the kids started getting high.

Baylor University soccer team members mix concrete.

"I had put this wall up that I'm about to go into this thing and it's going to be bad, because they talked about everyone sniffing glue and the huge language barrier and they don't really care about the message. They just want the food," said freshman quarterback Bryce Petty from the football team.

"I went in with that whole mindset, but I got totally rocked. At least from what I saw, there were only about five of them that were on glue. And when I talked to them the first time, this kid named Robert was pretty much preaching to me. He was talking about how our world needs more peace. And without peace, we can't love. And I'm like, 'Man, preach on!'

"I had all these walls set up where I really needed to be praying for this or that, and there were points where I was like, 'Whoa, that's not it at all.' And then there were some points where it was a lot worse than I was expecting."

Lisa Sliwinski Soc and Taylor Douthit from Baylor serve in the Mukuru Slum.

One of the more memorable moments on the trip came on their second visit with the street kids, when they followed it up with a sports clinic in the downtown park. For the first time, they got to see the children acting like children.

"Most of the time when we see them, they're high off the glue and just strung out on the streets and look so sad," said Palmer, a senior on the women's basketball team who was making her third trip along with Jones and Swindoll, a senior tight end on the football team.

"But when we got to play soccer with them, it was like they got to be little kids for a minute. They were laughing and running around and having a great time. Even if it was only for an hour, it was nice to see them have that outlet. That was probably my favorite day, just because it breaks my heart that kids don't get to be kids."

Some of the tightest and hopefully most lasting connections came on the group's trip to the Mukuru slums, where they rebuilt a house that will include a community center for a team of junior league soccer players.

Caitlin Fennegan and Carlie Davis from Baylor run soccer relays with inmates at Nairobi West Mens Prison.

"It was something that I just never imagined before," said Casey Lougheed, a graduate assistant trainer who works with the soccer team. "It was crazy to see how they lived and what they didn't have and to see how faithful they were and how they considered themselves blessed. Compared to what we have, it's on a completely different scale. What we might think they would be lacking, they didn't seem to even be bothered by it."

In Mukuru, several members of the Baylor group developed friendships that will carry on through sponsorships. While local contact Walter Machio is establishing a trust fund in Kenya, the Baylor group is setting up a non-profit foundation that will send donations to the sponsored children—where a "one-time visit is becoming something that can carry on for years after that," Yeary said.

Hanna named South Texas interim president. Homer Hanna, a former executive with South Texas Children's Home Ministries, will serve as interim president for the Beeville-based agency. During his 22-year tenure there, Hanna's responsibilities included serving as child care administrator, special assistant to the president and vice president for church relations. He also served two terms as interim president for South Texas Children's Home and in retirement has continued to serve the agency as part-time development consultant. Prior to coming to the children's home, Hanna served several Texas churches as youth minister, assistant pastor, associate pastor and pastor. He is a graduate of Baylor University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He also served as dean of students at the University of Corpus Christi—now Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. Hanna lives in Beeville with his wife, Marilyn. They have three children and eight grandchildren. A search committee will be named soon to find a successor to South Texas Children's Home Ministries President Todd Roberson, who has been named president of Children at Heart Ministries in Round Rock.

Center changes name, releases book excerpts. The Center for Informed Faith, headed by Baptist General Convention of Texas Theologian-in-residence Jim Denison, recently changed its name to the Denison Forum on Truth and Culture. In anticipation of the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the forum is releasing an advance electronic-book excerpt from Denison's new book, Radical Islam: What You Need to Know to new subscribers to his daily e-mail devotional. To subscribe, visit www.denisonforum.org.

Correction: An article in the July 4 issue titled "Bible Drill competitor overcomes obstacles" incorrectly stated Regan Brown was the first physically challenged competitor in the history of Texas Bible Drill competitions. At least one other individual with special needs has competed all the way to the state level. Tegan Lattimer, who has cerebral palsy, competed in Bible Drill from 2000 to 2003 and earned superior and excellent ratings at state competition without the benefit of any special accommodations.

Memorials committee seeks names. Each year, the Baptist General Convention of Texas recognizes at its annual meeting Texas Baptists who have died during the preceding year. The Memorials Committee requests help to identify individuals whose lives made a contribution to their churches, communities and state. Call (214) 828-5348 or e-mail debbie.moody@texasbaptists.org before Sept.15.

Nominating committee meeting set. The Committee to Nominate Executive Board Directors for the Baptist General Convention of Texas will meet at 10 a.m. on Aug. 18 at the Baptist Building in Dallas. The committee will select new directors to be elected at the annual meeting in October. Josh Guajardo, pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Katy, will preside.

OSLO, Norway (ABP) – Police in Azerbaijan raided a Baptist church in June in the port city of Sumgait, and a judge warned the congregation’s leader that he would be fined for a second offense of meeting for worship without state permission, according to Forum 18, a news service that tracks abuses of religious freedom.

The Sumgait congregation is a member of the Baptist Council of Churches, which refuses to apply for state registration in all the former Soviet states where it operates because they believe applying for state permission to exist would lead to state interference in their internal affairs.

Church leader Pavel Byakov reportedly explained the congregation's rejection of state registration, but the judge refused to accept the defense and issued a verbal warning not to hold unauthorized worship services again.

Police reportedly seized religious literature in the raid interrupting Sunday morning worship on June 12 and has not released the confiscated material.

ATLANTA (ABP) – Baptist groups in the United States have sent funds to provide food for drought victims in East Africa.

The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship sent an initial $5,000 to aid programs for refugees pouring into Kenya from Somalia. Food will be distributed in the Garissa area by Sisters Maternity Health Outreach, a ministry partner of CBF field personnel Melody and Sam Harrell, who are currently in the U.S.

Nine-year old Habiba Husseim Hassan, a Somali girl whose family fled drought and war at home to trek for a month across east Africa, waits with her family on July 21 to be registered in the Dadaab refugee camp in northeastern Kenya. Tens of thousands of newly arrived Somalis have swelled the population of what was already the world’s largest refugee camp. (CHurch World Service Photo: Paul Jeffrey/ACT Alliance)

American Baptist Churches USA released an emergency relief grant of $20,000 in One Great Hour of Sharing funds to Church World Service to provide aid in several drought-ravaged countries in East Africa.

The United Nations recently declared two areas of southern Somalia a famine, a benchmark meaning acute malnutrition rates among children exceed 30 percent and more than two people out of 10,000 die per day due to lack of access to food and other basic necessities.

Officials say that in the wider Horn of Africa, which includes Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan and Eritrea, more than 10 million need emergency rations to survive, and diseases like measles and cholera pose a risk.

“This is expected to be the worst famine in the last generation,” said David Harding, one of CBF’s field personnel in Ethiopia and the Atlanta-based Fellowship’s international disaster-response coordinator.

Jeff Palmer, executive director of Baptist Global Response, a non-profit ministry that works with Southern Baptist relief ministries and other worldwide partners, described a “red alert” regarding waning support for the Southern Baptist Convention’s World Hunger Fund.

Palmer said the fund, overseen by the SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, is at its lowest level in 20 years and 40 percent of what Southern Baptists were giving to fight world hunger a decade ago.

Both the CBF and ABC/USA appealed for donations. The Fellowship asked that donors send a check with “#17007 – Sub-Saharan Africa Response” in the memo line to Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, P.O. Box 101699, Atlanta, Ga., 30392

American Baptist officials said donations can be made online on the International Ministries website or by checks payable to “One Great Hour of Sharing – East Africa Drought” and mailed to: International Ministries, P.O. Box 851, Valley Forge, Pa., 19482.

“Our churches have responded generously to disasters in Haiti, Chile and Japan in recent years and months,” commented Charles Jones, International Ministries area director for Africa, Europe and the Middle East. “The tragedy emerging right now on the Horn of Africa is different. It has been unfolding quietly over a longer period of time, yet it is no less destructive and painful. It is claiming its victims slowly and painfully, as they struggle to find sources of food and shelter.”

MANILA, Philippines—First Philippine Baptist Church in Missouri City personally delivered a message from their hearts to people living here in their homeland: There is hope—for now and eternity.

More than 40 members of the congregation—about one-third of the church—spent a week sharing the hope of Christ through home construction projects in the Manila area, as well as participating in a pastors' conference, free medical clinic and children's feeding program in Biga, located in the province of Cavite.

The team of primarily first-generation immigrants to the United States and their children saw the trip as an opportunity to share the gospel in a country where they have roots and a common culture, Pastor Ernest Dagohoy said.

"We want to give back, first of all, to thank the Lord for what he has done to our church and to give back to the Lord for what he has done to us personally," Dagohoy said. "The best place for us to do that is our home country, the Philippines. That explains the theme that we have for this mission trip—heart to home. It's coming from our hearts to our home country, the Philippines. We just want to encourage our fellow Filipinos and most especially to share the gospel with them through what we are doing."

Mission team members—including Rose Nacionales (left)—pass a bucket of cement during the iHome construction project near Manila.

A mission team member prays with a child.

The team spent three days working on home construction projects for the poor through iHome, formerly Greater Manila Habitat for Humanity, hand-mixing cement, moving building supplies, building walls and painting.

During another busy day in Cavite, volunteers also treated more than 200 patients during a medical clinic, addressing issues from malnutrition to sore feet to more serious problems that required referring people to Filipino surgeons.

That same day, volunteers also fed more than 100 impoverished children, many of whom struggle to maintain a well-rounded diet that includes plenty of protein. For many, lack of regular protein leads to nutrition deficiencies, especially anemia.

More than 30 of the region's pastors attended the pastors' conference, which featured the first time the one-on-one discipleship curriculum Operation Multiplication was presented in the Philippines.

More than 200 people line up to be seen in the free medical clinic. Tiffany and Jojo Garbanzus register patients.

The outreaches were designed to have a long-lasting impact on the people the volunteers served, moving them toward housing, helping resolve medical needs and providing some nourishment, said Fe Jularbal, who coordinated the logistics of the trip.

The ministries also were intended for a more significant purpose—to share the gospel, Jularbal continued. The construction projects, clinic and children's feeding provided avenues through which church members could start relationships with Filipinos and eventually share the gospel. The pastors' conference was meant to encourage pastors and give them additional tools they can use to share the gospel.

"This is in response to how the Lord has loved and blessed us, for what he has done and his endless blessings and love," Jularbal said. "The only we can response is give back our love and devotion to him. Our true worship to him is to do his work."

Jaja Tan registers a woman and her baby for a free medical clinic.

The team saw more than 100 people embrace the hope of Christ during the trip, including van drivers, people living in the homes the team was constructing, mothers and clinic patients.

"They feel the spirit of the Lord," said church member Virginia Ontoy. "They usually share their tears. They become a child of God."

The trip is part of First Philippine Baptist Church's participation in Hope 1:8, a Texas Baptist initiative encouraging Christians to live out the mission imperative of Acts 1:8 to share the hope of Christ locally and around the globe.

The Baptist General Convention of Texas helped support the church's mission trip financially through Intercultural Strategic Partners, an interethnic council that encourages mission work with indigenous groups around the globe.

"We are supposed to be an ambassador of Christ," Ontoy said. "The Bible says we are to be ambassadors of Christ. We have to do it in action, not in words."

Cecile Dagohoy visits with a woman who came to the free clinic with a hurt foot.

Dagohoy thanked Texas Baptists for the investment in the work of spreading the gospel. Together, Texas Baptists are carrying the hope of Christ around the globe, Dagohoy noted.

"We would like to thank Texas Baptists for helping us out," he said. "What we are doing here is not just First Philippine Baptist Church representing Jesus Christ in the Philippines. This is Texas Baptists, the efforts of Texas Baptists reaching out to the Philippines."

The need for the gospel is great in the Philippines, Dagohoy said, as it is in the Houston area, making it crucial for Christians to share the hope of Christ everywhere they go.

"We just want to be the face of Jesus Christ where ever we go," he said, "whether it be in our own Jerusalem, which would be Houston, or here in the Philippines, which is perhaps the uttermost parts of the world for us at this time."

SAN ANTONIO—Victor Rodriguez has announced he plans to serve only one term as president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, and he will nominate the convention's first vice president, Jerry Carlisle, as his successor.

Jerry Carlisle

Rodriguez's term extends until the 2011 BGCT annual meeting, Oct. 24-26, in Amarillo. The next president will assume convention leadership at the conclusion of that meeting.

BGCT presidents may serve two one-year terms. But six out of the last seven presidents, including Rodriguez, have chosen to accept only one term.

Convention presidents travel extensively, and Rodriguez cited the needs of his family and congregation as primary factors in deciding to step down. He is pastor of South San Filadelfia Baptist Church in San Antonio.

"Our church is preparing to start building, and there's a huge construction process we'll be going through. That's what we're looking at as a church and ministry," he said. "So, between the time I need to spend with my family and my church, I wanted to stay closer to home."

Rodriguez predicted Carlisle, pastor of First Baptist Church in Plano, would make an excellent convention president.

"I believe Jerry is going to be the person God will use for the future of our convention," he said. "I see a future that is strong. We are blessed by young leaders who are on fire for God, and Jerry is one of them."

Carlisle particularly is gifted in leading his church and other Christians to bridge cultural, racial and ethnic divides, Rodriguez said. The first time they met, Carlisle instinctively called him hermano, the Spanish word for "brother," he recalled.

Under Carlisle's leadership, predominantly Anglo First Baptist in Plano has started mission congregations with other racial and ethnic groups in the community, sponsored three ongoing ministries in southern Mexico, and also supports two hospitals in Mexico.

Victor Rodriguez

"Jerry's effort to reach out to the multiple cultures that surround us is a plus. He knows the Hispanic and other ethnic work in Texas," Rodriguez said. "He is going to be a key leader."

For his part, Carlisle began praying about the possible nomination after Rodriguez brought it up a couple of months ago, he said.

If elected, Carlisle would focus on making Texas Baptists strong by building relationships—between churches and with institutions, he noted.

"We must enable the churches to connect with one another. That's something the convention definitely can help with," he said.

Rather than thinking of the convention as an old hierarchical structure, Texas Baptists can benefit by seeing the convention as a support system for horizontally connecting churches for individual support and to fulfill common purposes, he added.

"I know I need pastor friends and church partnerships in our city and the region as well as on a statewide level," he said. For example, First Baptist in Plano has been enriched by a partnership with Oak Island Baptist Church in Southeast Texas, which began as a response to devastation cause by Hurricane Ike in 2008, he explained.

"A lot of churches have missed out because they don't have those relationships," he said. "If we're going to reach the state, we need each other. Because of demographics and personal preferences, no one church can reach everybody in their community. The key thing our convention can do is help us all fulfill our calling—not just to our communities and to Texas, but to the world."

Texas Baptists also need to strengthen their relationships with about 25 institutions—universities, hospitals, children's ministries and others—supported by the convention, stressed Carlisle, who chaired the BGCT Executive Board's institutional relations committee.

"We need to keep the conversations alive with them—about our relationships and what the future holds for us," he said. "I think that future is positive and bright. It may be different than what we've had in the past, but it can benefit the churches, the institutions and the entire convention. …

"As our institutions increasingly become organizations that help us reach far beyond Texas to create a worldwide impact, that influence amounts to leverage—not for control or power, but for the sake of the gospel."

If elected, Carlisle would become BGCT president in the wake of what Rodriguez called "a very interesting year" in the convention's history.

Within weeks of Rodriguez's election last November, BGCT Executive Director Randel Everett resigned to become pastor of First Baptist Church in Midland.

Rodriguez unexpectedly found himself leading the process to move the convention forward, particularly working with BGCT and Executive Board officers to select an executive director-search committee.

Although the committee has not nominated Everett's successor, "I think they're doing a great job, and I pray God is going to continue to use them," Rodriguez said.

Also during the year, Houston Baptist University and Baylor University decided to name non-Baptists to their governing boards, steps that stirred controversy across the convention.

"The university relationships … have taken a lot of our effort, and it's been a good effort," Rodriguez said. "We continue to strive for unity between Baylor and the convention. Baylor needs the convention, and the convention needs Baylor."

In retrospect, Rodriquez believes God had a unique task in mind for him when he was elected last year.

"I've asked God, 'What was the purpose you have for me here?'" he said. "I see God used the officers to bring unity—to hold our leadership together and to continue to look forward into the future."

Carlisle has been pastor of the Plano congregation since 2002. The church averages 682 in worship attendance. In 2010, it contributed $518,037 to missions causes—17 percent of all receipts, which totaled $3,137,149. Last year, it allocated $87,623 to the Cooperative Program and gave $77,348 to the Cooperative Program for Texas causes.

Previously, Carlisle was pastor of First Baptist Church in Temple and Valley Ranch Baptist Church in Coppell. He served on the staffs of Tallowood Baptist Church in Houston and Plymouth Park Baptist Church in Irving. As a college student, he was a pastor and student minister of churches in Missouri and Alabama, and he spent a summer starting a church in Victoria, British Columbia.

He earned doctoral and master's degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and an undergraduate degree from Southwest Baptist College.

Carlisle is an adjunct professor at Dallas Baptist University and has supervised doctor of ministry candidates for Baylor University's Truett Seminary and the B.H. Carroll Theological Institute.

He serves on the governing boards of the Baptist World Alliance, Dallas Baptist University, Baylor Regional Medical Center of Plano, Mission to Unreached Peoples and the International Technical Assistance Group.

He previously served on the board of the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor and has been active in the Baptist associations with which his churches have affiliated.

Carlisle and his wife, Dedi, are the parents of three children, Elyse, Collin and Caleb.

A Texas Baptist minister who has founded a nonprofit Borderlands missions research center will be nominated for first vice president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

Ken May, pastor of First Baptist Church in Decatur, has announced his intention to nominate Jeff Johnson at the BGCT annual meeting in Amarillo, Oct. 24-26.

Jeff Johnson

"For the past four years, I have had the privilege of serving on the (BGCT) Executive Board and have come to know Jeff Johnson as a coworker and friend," May said. "I have found Dr. Johnson to be highly intelligent and yet very personable, well-organized, strategic and also hard-working, wise as well as very courageous for the cause of Christ, visionary and practical in the application and expansion of the kingdom along the border of Texas.

"He is passionate about our Lord, cooperative and a mainstream Texas Baptist. It is because of these qualities and his commitment to Texas Baptists that I plan to nominate him at our annual convention."

During Johnson's time as pastor of First Baptist Church in Del Rio, average weekly worship attendance grew from 80 to about 300. The church also launched two mission congregations and an extensive program to fight hunger in Del Rio and surrounding colonias by providing meals for about 900 people a month.

Previously, Johnson had served as pastor of Texas Baptist churches in Bonham, Sherman and Ivanhoe. He also served on staff at Baptist University of the Américas.

He founded the Center for Borderland Missional Research, Education and Outreach , a nonprofit organization devoted to contextual missions along the United States/Mexico border.

Johnson noted he did not seek out nomination for office, and he initially rejected the idea when first approached about it three years ago, saying, "The time just wasn't right." After being asked again and praying about the matter, Johnson said he agreed to allow his nomination this year.

"I've never been the pastor of a large church, but I have been involved in Texas Baptist institutional life, been a bivocational pastor, served a county-seat church and served in different parts of the state," he said.

"I believe I understand something about the cross-cultural challenges our state faces, and I have strong relationships with people across the broad spectrum of Texas Baptists."

Johnson noted he has not been a part of any political organization in Baptist life, and if elected, he will pursue no agenda other than promoting prayer, unity, relationship building and support for whomever the BGCT Executive Board selects as its new executive director.

"I would hope whoever the new officers are will help the new executive director be successful," he said. "The first year in any place of service is foundational, and I would want to help the person in the executive director's position succeed and to lay the foundation for the kind of long-term stability I think is needed there."

Johnson's denominational involvement has included service on the BGCT Executive Board, the BGCT Committee on Committees, the Texas Baptist Border Violence Committee, the Hispanic Baptist Convention/BGCT Unification Committee and the board of trustees for Baptist Child & Family Services.

A native of Mississippi, Johnson earned an undergraduate degree from Texas A&M University. He earned a master of divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and a doctor of ministry degree from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

He and his wife, Molly, have three adult daughters—Lori, Sara and Julie.

AUSTIN—Ken Hall, chief executive officer of Buckner International since 1994, announced his retirement from the Dallas-based organization during a July 22 meeting of the board of trustees.

His retirement is effective April 30, 2012, when President Albert Reyes will assume the CEO title.

Ken Hall

Hall, who was elected to the position in 1993, served as president/CEO of Buckner until 2010, when Reyes was elected president. Hall has continued serving as CEO. With his retirement, board members named Hall president emeritus as of May 1.

During Hall's tenure at the helm of Buckner, the organization grew to serve more than 400,000 people annually through an array of ministries around the world. He oversaw the expansion of Buckner to include more than $200 million in capital improvements, and in 2008, the Buckner endowment topped $200 million. Today, Buckner lists total assets of more than $400 million.

Along with the capital growth and improvements, Hall guided Buckner to expand its services beyond the borders of Texas and the United States by launching the organization's international ministry arm in 1996.

In addition, Buckner Retirement Services grew exponentially under Hall. Today, it is the largest not-for-profit senior living organization in Texas, according to a recent report by Ziegler and Company.

Prior to assuming leadership of Buckner, he served as pastor of four Texas Baptist churches. He is a past president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas and is the author of two books.

Reyes, who becomes CEO May 1, came to Buckner initially as president of Buckner Children and Family Services and in January 2010, he was elected as the sixth president in the 132-year history of Buckner International, succeeding Hall in that role. He came to Buckner from Baptist University of the Américas in San Antonio, where he served as president.

A native of Corpus Christi, Texas, Reyes also served as president of the BGCT and was pastor of three Texas Baptist churches before moving to BUA. He currently serves on the board of the Joint Council on International Children's Services. He holds two doctorate degrees.

Board Chair Lee Bush from First Baptist Church in Athens said the leadership transition "exemplifies the way Christian ministries should operate. Buckner has been blessed for 132 years with outstanding leaders, and both Dr. Hall and Dr. Reyes personify that leadership."

BEEVILLE—Homer Hanna, a former executive with South Texas Children’s Home Ministries, will serve as interim president and chief executive officer for the Beeville-based agency.

A search committee will be named soon to find a successor to South Texas Children’s Home Ministries President Todd Roberson, who has been named president of Children at Heart Ministries in Round Rock.

Homer Hanna

John Weber, chairman of the STCHM board of directors, noted he immediately thought of Hanna, who retired in 2000 after 22 years service at South Texas Children’s Home, as he began the process of naming an interim president.

“Before I talked to Homer to see if he would take on this responsibility, I spoke with each of the members of our executive committee about who our interim should be, as well as to the chairmen of the South Texas Children’s Home and South Texas Children’s Home Land Management boards,” Weber said. “All were in agreement that we could not have a better person in this position than Homer Hanna.”

During his tenure at South Texas Children’s Home, Hanna’s responsibilities included serving as child care administrator, special assistant to the president and vice president for church relations. Additionally, he served two terms as interim president for South Texas Children’s Home.

In retirement, Hanna has continued to serve as part-time development consultant for South Texas Children’s Home Ministries.

“South Texas Children’s Home Ministries is successful because of the wonderful group of talented and dedicated people who do their part in every aspect of the day to day life of the Home,” Weber said, “We are in marvelous shape to move forward as Homer steps in once again to serve the South Texas Children’s Home Ministries family. He will be a familiar face, both internally and publicly, as he represents the Home and facilitates operations.”

Prior to his coming to the children’s home in 1977, Hanna served in numerous Texas churches as youth director, assistant pastor, associate pastor and pastor. He is a graduate of Baylor University and the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He also served as Dean of Students at the University of Corpus Christi—now Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi—from 1966 to 1970.

Hanna currently lives in Beeville with his wife, Marilyn. They have three children and eight grandchildren.

Evangelical leader to retire from pastorate. Evangelical leader Leith Anderson has announced plans to retire as senior pastor of his megachurch in Eden Prairie, Minn. Anderson will end his 35-year pastoral leadership of the 5,000-member Wooddale Church—an interdenominational congregation affiliated with the Baptist General Conference—at the end of the year. He will continue his role as president of the National Association of Evangelicals. Anderson, 66, will become pastor emeritus and minister-at-large at Wooddale, which has established nine other congregations in Minnesota. In February, he was named to the White House’s advisory council on faith-based programs. Republican presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty is a member of Wooddale Church, but Anderson told the Star Tribune newspaper his retirement had been planned for a year and did not relate to Pawlenty’s campaign. “I don’t have any role in the Pawlenty campaign, and I don’t foresee having any role in the campaign,” he said.

No vote for Crystal Cathedral founder.  Robert Schuller, founding pastor of the Crystal Cathedral, has been removed from a voting position on the governing board of the megachurch ministry he started in Southern California five decades ago. He has been named honorary chairman of the board emeritus, a nonvoting position on the Crystal Cathedral Ministries board of directors. A public statement from Crystal Cathedral Ministries noted Schuller, 84, will continue to speak in the church’s pulpit and on its Hour of Power television broadcast and participate in “creative and vision-casting meetings” with staffers. The transition comes after the cathedral, long embroiled in family and financial problems, put its campus up for sale after filing for Chapter 11 bank-ruptcy protection last October. At the time, it owed $7.5 million to creditors and had cut back staff, halt-ed flagship holiday pageants and reduced airtime. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange, Calif., has expressed interest in purchasing the cathedral campus. Other prospective buyers—including a development company and nearby Chapman University—plan to offer the cathedral a leaseback program that would allow it to continue worship services in the renowned glass-walled edifice.

Pentagon ordered to uphold DOMA. The House of Representatives voted 248-175, in an amendment to a larger Defense Department funding bill, to order the Pentagon to uphold the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act that defines marriage as between one man and one woman. A majority of the House voted to restrict the Pentagon from granting same-sex couples the same rights or benefits as married couples. The amendment also is aimed at keeping military chaplains from officiating at same-sex weddings. The move occurred as the Pentagon appears poised to lift the ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military. The House has yet to act on another amendment, sponsored by Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan., that would prohibit the Pentagon from implementing a chaplain-training program on the repeal of the Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell policy.