MCALLEN—According to reports from around the world, people are coming to faith in Christ at an amazing rate. For Jim Denison, this is proof that the Fifth Great Awakening is underway, but America could miss it.

Denison, theologian-in-residence at the Baptist General Convention of Texas and president of the Center for Informed Faith, believes the world is becoming more and more Christian on a daily basis.

Jim Denison

Estimates peg the growth at 82,000 believers per day, which Denison said is the largest number in 20 centuries.  He noted movements in Australia and in Central and South America, where Pentecostal/charismatic movements are springing up regularly, as more proof. Cuba has seen 1 million new Christians over the past 10 years, and God is working among Muslims in great ways, particularly through dreams and visions of Jesus, he said.

While the movements are different in some aspects, one thing is constant in the swell of enthusiasm for the gospel, Denison noted—It’s not happening in the United States.

“God is on the march. The Holy Spirit is on the move. We’re in what I believe is the Fifth Great Awakening in the world, but we’re not seeing it here,” said Denison, addressing a workshop session held during the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting in McAllen. The workshop addressed key elements of the great awakening occurring around the world and Denison’s view on how it came to be.

Denison believes the Fifth Great Awakening can be traced to South Korea in 1958, when the great devastation to the nation moved a pastor named Cho to start a church in a home. From that first gathering of seven, the church now has 1.2 million members, the largest evangelical church in history. South Korea now boasts five of the 10 largest churches in the world and sends more missionaries out than the United States. Denison noted a tailor in his Dallas neighborhood moved to the States to open her business and minister to customers through prayer, Bible verse cards and evangelism.

However, that awakening is not taking place in Western Europe and the United States. In Great Britain, for instance, four times as many Muslims go to mosque on Friday as Christians go to church on Sunday, Denison reported.

Only 23 percent of Americans are in church on Sundays, and the fastest growing religious demographic is the one that claims “no religion,” he said. The shift, he said, comes from the way Americans live.

“We live compartmentalized lives, with our spiritual life separate from our secular life. It’s like transactional religion; you do your part and God does his part,” he said. “Biblical Christianity is all in, 24/7.”

With the demographic shift in Texas, Denison said, churches have a unique opportunity to respond to a culture that embraces family, faith and connectedness if they will just do it. And while the spiritual state of America may look bleak, Denison said there is a solution.

“We most need to make God our king, not our hobby,” he said. “He is our king to the degree that your obeying his will. Wherever he is king, the awakening is happening.”

Kingship occurs when people first make Jesus their Lord and Savior, then admit that they need his power to accomplish anything, Denison said. When people submit to the Holy Spirit’s leading on a daily basis and keep in conversation with God, he truly is king of their lives, and they are able to live out the words of Acts 1:8, the theme verse for the convention.

“You will only make God your king when you realize you need a king,” Denison said. “We will never experience the Fifth Great Awakening in America until we pray, turn from our wicked ways and seek His face. When we do these things, we will … see the same things happening in South Korea, China, Africa and the rest of the world.”

McALLEN—At least three things set apart as distinctive the theology of hope Christians in the 21st century can offer the world—a crucified Christ, a cross-bearing church and a radical love-ethic, said Ellis Orozco, pastor of First Baptist Church in Richardson.

Orozco led a Bible study at the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting exploring the theological foundation for the Acts 1:8 call to bear witness of Christ locally, regionally and to farthest reaches of the globe.

Ellis Orozco

Orozco noted the context for the Acts 1:8 mandate, pointing to Jesus’ original audience as “a society that knew nothing but domination by a foreign power,” the Roman Empire. In the rigidly stratified social structure of his day, Jesus worked primarily among the peasantry and the outcast handicapped and unclean whom the ruling elite considered expendable, he noted.

“Jesus’ whole life was given over to ministry to the poorest of the poor,” Orozco said.

While Judaism in the first century was far from unified in many respects, its varied strains held two things in common, he noted—a strong spirit of nationalism and messianic expectation, understood in terms of liberation from Roman oppression.

Rapid expansion of the gospel in the first century was made possible by the Roman Empire’s unified language, common philosophy and culture,  the Pax Romana that guaranteed law and order, and a system of highways created to expedite Roman commerce.

“God prepared the way centuries before Jesus for the proliferation of the gospel of hope,” Orozco said.

Similarly, 21st century globalization has created an environment for spreading the Christian message of hope, he added. English—particularly as translated through computer translation systems—provides a common language, and the Enlightenment philosophy that helped shape American democracy and free-market capitalism have spread around the world.

Unfortunately, Orozco noted, some aspects of the worst aspects of the American dream—selfish consumption and rampant materialism—also have been exported globally. “We’re exporting gluttony instead of Christ,” he said.

Instead of spreading a “health and wealth heresy” or a “sanitized Christianity,” Orozco said, Christians in America have the opportunity to offer a real gospel centered on a crucified Savior and lived out by a cross-bearing church.

That will occur when Christians take seriously Christ’s radical love-ethic, as expressed in the command to love enemies, he said.

“That radical love-ethic is not optional. It’s a required course,” Orozco said.

When Christians demonstrate genuine love, it draws people to Christ he said.

“Jesus gave us the greatest evangelistic strategy imaginable—love each other.”

MCALLEN—A day after being elected president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, Victor Rodriguez relinquished his role as president of the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas.

Rodriguez, the first person to be elected president of both conventions the same year, said he wanted to make the move quickly so the Hispanic Baptist Convention will know they have a president who is fully committed to leading the body.

Rodriguez will continue supporting the convention and working with it, he said, but Jesse Rincones, pastor of Alliance Church in Lubbock and first vice president of the Hispanic convention, will become president.

Victor Rodriguez

“I think Jesse Rincones, for him to take the leadership will be a blessing for the convention,” Rodriguez said.

Rincones praised Rodriguez’s leadership through the Hispanic convention’s recent 100th anniversary and looks forward to continue building the organization’s ministry.

“I’d like to thank Brother Victor for his service and his leadership through the centennial celebration of Convencion,” Rincones said. “He set a higher bar for the next 100 years.”

Rodriguez, pastor of South San Filadelfia Baptist Church in San Antonio, believes contemporary Texas Baptists are living through historic time as they come together across ethnic lines. The future is bright for the Hispanic Baptist Convention and the BGCT, he insisted.

“This is the uniting and coming together as a whole family,” he said.

Rodriguez is the second Hispanic elected BGCT president. Albert Reyes, president of Buckner International, was the first Hispanic BGCT president.

McALLEN—In the face of poverty and hunger, as well as changing state demographics, Texas Baptists might be inclined to shrink in fear from the task at hand. But Baptist General Convention of Texas President David Lowrie urged messengers to Texas Baptists’ annual meeting to remain strong and courageous as they follow Jesus’ strategy to reach a hurting state.

Using the passage in Luke 10 in which Jesus sends out workers into the fields, Lowrie encouraged Baptists not to miss the key elements of the work in the harvest, specifically that while Jesus asked the workers to pray for additional help, he also urged them to go.

David Lowrie, BGCT president

“Jesus gives us a practical expression of the strategy he might use to change our state and the world. The Lord appointed 72 others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go,” said Lowrie, pastor of First Baptist Church in El Paso.

“People question the whole concept of cooperation, but from the very earliest days of the movement of Jesus, he taught cooperation. If anyone could have done it by himself, it would have been Jesus. But he intentionally appointed them and gave them a task.”

The key element was being sent, Lowrie said, a concept many churches have lost as they follow the “If you build it, they will come” concept from the baseball film Field of Dreams.

“I would dare you to find in the strategy of Jesus one that says ‘sit and wait.’ We have to take the hope to them, so Jesus sent them out,” he noted. “Are we sitting there waiting for the world to come to us, or are we going to take Jesus at his word and be sent?”

Those Jesus sent were not the saviors but the advance team, those sent to share the message that the kingdom of God was at hand, Lowrie said.

Christians serve the same purpose. But when Jesus shows up in a community, lives are changed. Jesus also shared a clear vision in the Luke 10 passage, Lowrie said.

“When the harvest comes in, it’s a time of action. There’s an urgency about it,” he said. “Some would see Texas through dark eyes, saying this is difficult time and place to be. But it could be that Texas is as ripe as it’s ever been for spiritual awakening.”

Those difficult times include a high childhood hunger rate—Texas is the top state in the U.S. in that category—and a No. 1 ranking in adults working at minimum wage. Contrasted with the No. 1 state in which to run a business and the No. 1 state in wind power, Texas also has the lowest rate of high school graduation.

But Moses’ admonition to Joshua to “be strong and courageous for the Lord God is with you wherever you go” can be good advice for Texans as they face the daunting task of reaching one of the nation’s most populous states, Lowrie said. The key, he said, is for churches to cooperate, trust God fully and overcome obvious threats to both issues.

“We cannot let kingdom cooperation die on our watch. I don’t care what we call it; we have to keep doing it. We have to keep working together and stretching ourselves,” Lowrie said, noting that relational and financial issues threaten that cooperation often. “We have to lead with trust in the Lord and with each other. We have to lay aside preconceived notions about people and realize we have the same passions. It’s the enemy who draws these lines.

“The economy has been bad, and it’s often hard (for churches) to make ends meet. When money gets tight, (we are tempted to ask) do we keep the money at home to keep the lights on or continue to give to the convention to ministries. But what we do as a church teaches our people what we believe about God.”

Churches are tempted to forego support for convention entities and mission-sending agencies to fund their own hands-on ministry work, but he encouraged them to consider those two as not mutually exclusive.  Instead, churches should be involved in both efforts and trust God to provide and bless as they obey his commands to go.

Jesus “asks them to ask for more workers, but then go. Don’t wait for the reinforcements to come, just go and trust me,” he said. “Are we going to try and strategize or come to the place where we say, ‘We’re gonna go’ and say, ‘We believe you’re going to meet our needs.’ Let’s put our faith in Jesus and trust him. Could it be that Jesus is saying to all of us to be strong and courageous, because the Lord your God goes before you into the land?”

McALLEN—Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Director Randel Everett put a face on the convention’s new Hope 1:8 initiative in his address during the annual meeting in McAllen, encouraging churches to change their thinking in order to reach a changing state.

Everett introduced Keron Jackson, who described how he had been without family and homeless, eventually ending up in East Texas, living in his car. A friend told him about Panola Junior College, but he had little interest in school. Once he learned the school had a cafeteria, his interest grew.

Randel Everett

Then he found a couple of friends—one who let him move into his home until the dorms opened and the other who gave him a job mowing lawns and invited him to attend Central Baptist Church in Carthage.

“I had blamed God for everything in my life, for losing my parents, for being abused. I did not want to have anything to do with God,” he said.
“I was adopted by Sunday school class 23 as a ‘project,’ and I went from having no family to having these 20 sets of people caring about me. These people began to make up the face of Jesus for me.”

Once Jackson began attending the church and reading the Bible, he said, he realized salvation in Christ was key, and his life was changed.

“The problems we face are not bigger than the God we serve. Even when I hated God, he still had a plan for my life,” he said.

Jackson’s situation was not as rare as it may seem, Everett said.

“Not all of us have been like Keron and have been homeless, not all of us have lost their family; not all of us have had a friend murdered,” he said. “But all of us had to be rescued by the power of the Holy Spirit. All of us live hopeless, destructive lives unless God rescues us through the hope of Christ. It’s through God’s church that this word of hope is going to be announced.”

Through the most recent BGCT emphasis, Texas Hope 2010, Texas Baptists succeeded in spreading the gospel to many in the state, but much work remains, he said. Everett introduced the Hope 1:8 emphasis, based on the passage in Acts 1:8: “And you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria and to the ends of the earth.”

Every believer and congregation has to determine what his or her “Judea” and “Samaria” is, whether a geographic area or affinity groups, Everett said. Texas Baptist churches should consider the makeup of Texas now compared to what it is projected to look like in 2018.

Looking at the Acts 1:8 imperative and the prospects of a more secular Texas in 2018  will shape what the state’s Baptist churches and institutions look like to a large degree as they attempt to respond, Everett said.

Massive population growth and demographic shifts lead to the logical conclusion that more churches are needed, but Everett said the cost involved in building facilities and other resources is simply out of reach. Instead, he suggested, looking at new mission models.

“Our state is increasingly becoming more secular and isolated and ignorant of the hope that is within all of us,” Everett said, noting that the church plants would have to multiply four-fold just to keep up with population growth from 10 years ago.

“Are there other models where one building might house multiple congregations, worshipping in multiple languages and multiple styles? Could our institutions be housing churches? Who are we training that can be leaders and pastors? If we’re going to reach Texans for Christ, we’re going to need a new paradigm.”

Part of that paradigm shift needs to include a close examination of where churches are spending their dollars, Everett said, given the struggle currently felt to support the Baptist missionaries around the world. Partnering with Baptists around the world, mission-sending agencies and international seminaries that are training local believers is another area Everett encouraged churches to consider. But individuals also must accept responsibility.

“It will take us all to realize that we’re all called to missions,” he said. “What if you trained your workforce to be missionaries for Christ so that as they are scattered around the world doing your work, they also go to share the hope of Christ? What if when you shipped our materials, you included a place for medical supplies to the world in need?

“It wasn’t preachers that were scattered around the world in Acts 1:8. It was everyday people who went out wherever they were sharing about Christ. Churches are talking about how hard it is in an evil world and tragic economic times and how difficult it is to live for Jesus in a pagan world. But we need to stand strong. … It will take all of us.”
 

MCALLEN – On the eve of the first Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting in the Rio Grande Valley, Texas Baptists gathered to worship, celebrating where God has moved in the past and looking toward the future.

Preaching during the rally, Julio Guarneri told participants the world is changing. Change of any sort makes people uncomfortable, and individuals struggle with how to respond to what is going on around them.

Praise was part of the Hispanic and African-American rally that preceded the BGCT annual meeting in McAllen.

Guarneri, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in McAllen reminded Texas Baptists that God is moving in the midst of change. God is changing hearts and lives, revolutionizing families and communities, he said.

"He is a God of new things,” Guarneri said. “He specializes in that.”

Change is constant, and so is God’s activity in the middle of it, Guarneri said. Both have existed throughout human history, he noted. God showed himself in dramatic ways—using a burning bush, delivering the Israelites from bondage in Egypt and revealing himself most fully through the life and actions of Christ.

And 100 years ago, Guarneri said, God brought together a small group of Hispanic Texas Baptists to form the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas to cooperate in missions and ministry. Decades later, the Hispanic Baptist convention signed a unification agreement with the Baptist General Convention of Texas. This year, both conventions reworked that agreement.

God “is the God that led (Hispanic Texas Baptists) to plant churches, to organize their work,” he said. “That led to us.”

Guarneri pondered what God is doing in the midst of change now. Missiologists have noted Christianity is booming in the Southern Hemisphere, where Christian groups are expanding by leaps and bounds. More than 400 South American groups sent more than 10,000 missionaries around the globe last year.

“This is a new world,” Guarneri said. “God is doing a new thing.”

Hispanic Texas Baptists can learn from Latinos in the Southern Hemisphere, Guarneri said. God is calling his people to share the gospel. Texas Baptists may find new ways of doing that from South American Latinos.

To learn from what God is doing in the Southern Hemisphere, Hispanic Texas Baptists first must be willing to open their hearts to God’s work and calling. That action can change the way people think and act, seeking to share the hope of Christ.

“If we expect God to do new things, it must start in our hearts,” he said.

MCALLEN—Texas Baptist Men gathered at Calvary Baptist Church to celebrate the activity of God—work being done around the world in Christ’s name.

The group particularly focused on missions and ministry in the Rio Grande Valley, as McAllen played host to the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting.

Texas Baptist Men Executive Director Leo Smith reports on missions progress to the TBM rally in McAllen. (PHOTO/Eric Guel)

TBM President Al Wise of Woods Chapel Baptist Church in Arlington spoke about the purpose of the rally, noting the passages from Christ,” First Corinthians about the body of Christ.

“We are one; we’re not several,” Wise said. “When we gather here today, there’s no distinction. We have different backgrounds, and some of us speak different languages, but we have one common thing. We are part of the body of Christ.”

The program featured reports from individuals involved in TBM ministries around the Valley, including Joacim Ramos, who leads TBM efforts for Rio Grande Valley Baptist Association that encompasses four counties. Ramos noted monthly meetings have included about 100 men gathering for fellowship, discipleship and encouragement. Men’s lives are being changed, he reported.

“We know that whatever we do is not going to be in vain,” Ramos said.

Mike Tello, regional TBM director and a member of First Baptist Church in Weslaco, spoke about the Royal Ambassadors work in the region. The first camp for boys in the Valley was held four years ago, fulfilling a longtime dream for Tello, and more than 50 came to faith in Christ. This year’s camp drew hundreds who participated in skills classes, praise and worship, Bible study and missions testimonies.

Tello also noted the annual men’s retreat in Menard, which 320 men and boys attended for training in leadership for Royal Ambassadors. He encouraged the growth of this area.

“The door to Texas Baptist Men is through Royal Ambassadors,” he said. “We need men who will take the bull by the horns, be available and be willing to be trained.”

Domingo Quintanilla of Mission spoke about international missions experiences, particularly a longtime partnership he has enjoyed in Peru, serving as a translator for medical missions teams that treat residents of the mountain regions. He has been to the country eight times in the past decade and has seen hundreds make decisions for Christ. He has also traveled to Mexico on missions endeavors many times since 1984.

The rally also featured a brief testimony from Leo Endel, executive director of the Minnesota-Wisconsin Association, who brought thanks for TBM’s continued work in their region. TBM teams have led church renewal weekends in Wisconsin for the past two years, with many congregations experiencing growth and revival.

“These events have jumpstarted the enthusiasm in our churches,” he said. “They’re beginning to see God work in amazing ways. You played a part in helping them see God’s work in their midst.”

Mickey Lenamon, resource development director for TBM, closed out the program by encouraging participation in “Count Me in for 2010,” an emphasis aimed at involving 5,000 families to partner with TBM.

Currently at about 80 percent to its goal, Texas Baptist Men is seeking help in three areas—prayer for volunteers and staff; participation in one of 18 ministries; and partnership financially in terms of monthly support for the ministry.

MCALLEN—Messengers to opening business session of the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting rejected a proposal that would have allowed Houston Baptist University to elect non-Baptist trustees, and they approved — with two amendments from the floor — a massive overhaul of Texas Baptists’ annual meeting.

Messengers on Nov. 8 turned aside a BGCT Executive Board recommendation that the state convention revise its agreement with Houston Baptist University, allowing HBU to elect a minority of non-Baptist Christian trustees.

Messengers on Nov. 8 turned aside a BGCT Executive Board recommendation that the state convention revise its agreement with Houston Baptist University.

HBU has related to the convention by special agreement since 2001. That agreement allows HBU to elect 75 percent of its own trustees, with the BGCT electing the remaining 25 percent. All trustees HBU elects must be Baptist but not necessarily from BGCT-affiliated churches.

The revised agreement would have allowed up to one third of the trustees elected by the university — one-fourth of the total board — to be non-Baptist Christians.

Ed Seay, chair of the trustee board and pastor of First Baptist Church in Magnolia, noted HBU is the only evangelical university in the Houston—soon to be the nation’s third-largest city. Seay emphasized the diverse population of Houston and the need to reach out to evangelical Christians in the city by providing them a minority voice on the school’s governing board.

Clyde Glazener, pastor of Gambrell Street Baptist Church in Fort Worth and a BGCT past president, expressed concern that denominations historically have lost institutions after they allowed similar moves.

“They never take the step without eventually losing” the school, he said. “It’s like a flat roof. It’s not a question of if it’s going to leak. It’s a question of when.”

Bob Fowler, a messenger from South Main Baptist Church in Houston and a past chair of the BGCT Executive Board, characterized the recommended change as “well-reasoned and appropriate.”

He emphasized the need for HBU to be able to relate effectively to other evangelical Christians, and he expressed appreciation for the way the school’s trustees came to the BGCT “with no demands, only a request” that non-Baptists be allowed a presence on the board.

But another past chair of the Executive Board, John Petty, pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Kerrville, expressed his concern that allowing non-Baptists to serve on Baptist institutional boards is a “slippery slope” toward a diminished commitment to Baptist identity.

Pointing to the size of Union Baptist Association — larger than some state Baptist conventions — he said he found it hard to believe HBU could not find enough well-informed, engaged Baptists to serve on its board.

Seay insisted the university remains committed to its Baptist identity. The motion will “in no way diffuse our Baptist identity or direction,” he said.

But Andy Pittman, pastor of First Baptist Church in Lufkin, voiced concern that having non-Baptists on the board would “allow non-Baptists to set the agenda … hurting the future of Texas Baptists.”

Stacy Conner, pastor of First Baptist Church in Muleshoe, asked whether the revised agreement would allow non-Baptists to serve as officers on the trustee board.

Seay said the agreement included no restriction prohibiting it, but he deemed it unlikely.

However, Conner said, if non-Baptists eventually could rise to a position of leadership as officers on the board, their influence no longer could be considered a minority presence.

In other business, messengers approved an extreme makeover of the BGCT annual meeting focus and format — but not quite as extreme as a study committee recommended.

Kyle Henderson, pastor of First Baptist Church in Athens, chaired the committee appointed to study ways to increase participation at the annual event. He compared the annual meeting to a Thanksgiving family dinner that fewer and fewer people were participating in each year.

“Look around. There are a lot of empty seats around the family table,” he said, noting only 8.5 of the churches eligible to send messengers to the annual meeting attended the McAllen gathering. At mid-afternoon on the opening day, only 754 messengers had registered, along with 775 visitors.

The study committee recommended two measurable goals focused on the number of churches participating in the annual meeting rather than the number of people in attendance—double the percentage of participating churches by 2013 and involve every Texas Baptist church at least once every five years.

Key recommendations included:

• Showcase one area of ministry each year. Focus on a different theme annually, rotating between five key areas—evangelism/missions, education/discipleship, advocacy/care, Baptist identity and Baptist community. Every fifth year, schedule “The Gathering”—a three-day summer event that would bring together Texas Baptist ethnic groups and interest groups. The committee also recommended a multi-site event in 2017 using video simulcast technology, involving as many Texas Baptist institutions as possible.

• Plan beyond the current year. Coordinate and plan the annual meeting starting 18 months in advance of the event to secure speakers, gather resources, facilitate institutional cooperation and build momentum.

• Adopt a planning matrix with a clear purpose statement and values. The committee expressed its belief the purpose of the annual meeting should be “mobilizing, encouraging, informing and uniting Texas Baptists to accomplish the Great Commission.”

Several of the value statements — lengthen the meeting to three days, include a service project and schedule plenty of time for fellowship —sparked little discussion.

However, messengers rejected two proposals included in the list of values, turning aside proposals to limit business discussion to targeted breakout sessions and eliminating resolutions.

Steve Wells, pastor of South Main Baptist Church in Houston, characterized the recommendation about moving business discussions to breakout sessions and having votes without discussion in general sessions as “a bad plan,” and he made a motion amending the committee’s recommendations by removing that proposal. After extended discussion, the amendment passed.

Ken Coffee, a messenger from First Baptist Church in San Antonio, also made a motion amending the committee’s recommendation by removing the proposal that would have done away with resolutions.

Coffee noted resolutions provide a way for the BGCT to go on record regarding important issues — a tool that proves helpful when critics accuse the convention of not taking a stand on those matters.

He also voiced concern some would characterize elimination of resolutions as “one more way to keep people from voicing opinions.” After discussion, the amendment passed.

With those two issues out of the way, the committee’s proposal passed overwhelmingly.

In other business, messengers:

• Elected Victor Rodriguez, pastor of South San Filadelfia in San Antonio as president; Jerry Carlisle, pastor of First Baptist Church in Plano, as first vice president; and Sylvia DeLoach, veteran missions leader and member of First Baptist Church in Richardson, as second vice president.

• Approved a revised unification agreement with the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas.

• Granted recognized status to the Vietnamese Baptist Fellowship.

• Approved recommendations from a committee on border violence. They included a day of prayer and other prayer initiatives, retreats for Mexican pastors and spouses to offer them encouragement, and a partnership with the group No Mas Violencia that sponsors programs for schools, churches, civic officials and law enforcement.

John Hall of Texas Baptist Communications contributed to this article.

DALLAS (ABP) — Texas Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton told a Texas Baptist mega-church Nov. 7 that he would not have overcome the alcohol and drug addiction that nearly cost him his baseball career without God's help.

Coming off a season in which he won the American League batting title and led the Rangers to their first World Series, Hamilton, 29, told worshippers at First Baptist Church in Dallas that the best part of his MVP-caliber year was the platform it gave him to talk about his faith in Jesus Christ.

Josh Hamilton (Photo by Keith Allison)

"That's what I enjoyed most about the entire year," Hamilton said. "Not the awards, not going to the playoffs, going to the World Series … but it was about sharing Christ with as many news people as I could, preferably live so they can't cut out Jesus' name."

Hamilton, who recounts his faith story in a 2008 book titled Beyond Belief, told the congregation he went to church on and off while growing up, but most of his interests revolved around sports. He accepted Christ after his rookie season but did not become grounded in his faith.

After injuries suffered in an automobile accident forced him out of baseball, Hamilton started hanging around tattoo parlors, where his friends introduced him to alcohol and drugs.

"It was the biggest mistake of my life," Hamilton told worshippers.

After that, he said, he was on and off of drugs for the next three years but got suspended from baseball after failing a couple of drug tests.

He stayed clean for several months, got married and started a family before a relapse forced a separation in his marriage and a restraining order against him to keep him out of his home.

He hit bottom when his grandmother confronted him for using drugs in her house and for the first time made him understand how he was hurting people who loved him. He pulled a Bible from a closet and recommitted his life to Christ.

Hamilton said the experience brought about a complete reordering of his priorities, which before than had been exclusively about baseball.

"When I recommitted my life to Christ, the priorities made a drastic change," he said. "It went God first, humility, family, sobriety and then baseball, if it ever happened again."

But all that didn't prevent another well-documented relapse when he went to Arizona to prepare for the 2009 season.

"For three weeks I stopped reading my Bible," he said. "I stopped doing my devotions. I stopped praying. I stopped fellowshipping with my accountability partner for three weeks. And I thought I could take one drink. And that one drink led to about 20."

Hamilton said he has to take safeguards to keep from falling off the wagon. For one thing, he doesn't carry cash or credit cards. If he needs to buy gas for his truck, even though it is inconvenient, he calls his wife to meet him at the gas station and then returns the credit card to her after filling up his tank.

He also consciously surrounds himself with people who care about him and want the best for him.

"It's an every day battle," he admitted. "I've got to get up every morning and take my cross up. I've got to just wake up in the morning and tell myself with God's help and Christ's help I'm going to be a responsible man, husband, father today."

His support system extended to his Ranger teammates, who rallied around him after winning the American League Division Series by dousing his head with ginger ale instead of the traditional championship celebration involving champagne.

–Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

BELTON—In the course of 28 hours, a group of University of Mary Hardin-Baylor students begged for food, dug through trashcans looking for aluminum cans and spent a night outdoors when temperatures hovered in the 40s as they participated in a poverty simulation on the Belton campus.

In conjunction with Missions Emphasis Week, the UMHB Baptist Student Ministry helped about 20 students experience what it’s like to live in poverty.

Senior nursing major Amber Schladoer, a co-director of the special events committee with the BSM, believed the poverty simulation conveyed an important message to students.

“We based a lot of our poverty simulation on one that some of the girls on our committee experienced with Mission Waco,” Schladoer said. “We did as much as we could do on campus.”

At orientation, students learned facts about poverty in the United States and around the world.

Sophomore mathematics major Evan Mullins arrived with a backpack filled with what he considered the essentials he would need for an overnight trip. He was surprised when he was told he couldn’t keep it all.

“They told us we could pick three items to keep,” Mullins said. “I chose to keep my jeans, my sweatshirt and my sleeping bag.”

Participants received $25 in “simulated welfare money” and had to choose how they would spend it. Items of clothing were $3 each, meals were $6, and rent to stay indoors for the night was $20.

University of Mary Hardin-Baylor students huddle under blankets at the Sesquicentennial Plaza on the UMHB campus during a poverty simulation. (PHOTOS/Carol Woodward/UMHB)

Students were given a list of items to collect and things to do if they made it through the night. One task on the list was rummaging through trash for aluminum cans.

Students were asked not to tell anyone who asked that they were participating in a simulation, but to respond they had “fallen on tough times.” The committee wanted participants to be treated the same way anyone else rummaging through the trash would be treated.

Students were split into groups to keep each other company and motivate one another to complete the experience.

In each group, one person was selected at random to be homeless. The homeless could not keep any personal items, and they received no simulated money. They had no sleeping bags, toothbrushes or warm clothes, unless someone in their group decided to share.

In the middle of the night, UMHB police woke Mullins and his group and instructed them to move. After settling at another area for the night, participants were jarred from their sleep when a sprinkler system soaked them.

Freshman graphic design major Taylor Bela, a participant in the poverty simulation, said staying the night outside in the cold weather was difficult.

“I only had shorts on, so it was an intense experience,” Bela said.

She not only slept outside, but also spent part of a day in the campus dining hall asking other students for food.

“The hardest thing for me was having to ask other students for food,” Bela said.

“I feel like I should be able to provide for myself. I could go get a job and make money for myself, but in this situation I couldn’t.”

The poverty simulation was designed to help participants understand what poor people experience each day.

“It’s so hard,” Bela said. “A lot of times, we don’t think about how hard it would be, because we have the things we need. A lot of people don’t have those things, and they face these hardships every day. I can’t imagine how hard it is for them.”

The  Singing Men of North Central Texas  have returned from a concert tour of Ukraine, Oct. 17-30. The trip was not without its challenges. The trip had been planned for April 2010 but had to be cancelled because of the closing of all European airports by the ash plume from the Iceland volcano. Then fire destroyed the 1,300-seat sanctuary of Central Baptist Church in Dnipropetrovsk the day before the choir’s scheduled performance.

A A woman in Ukraine enjoys a musical performance by the Singing Men of North Central Texas.

 “The response to the gospel message through music and the spoken word was overwhelming because of God’s timing, the prayer support of our churches and families at home, the spiritual preparation of our music and ministry teams, and the incredible advance work from the Ukraine churches,” said Tim Studstill of the BGCT music and worship team.

“This was truly an example of believers joining together to accomplish great things for God’s glory.”

Central Baptist Church in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, burned the night before the Singing Men of North Central Texas were scheduled to perform a concert there.

The touring church musicians and their ministry partners pledged $25,000 to help rebuild the church, and the Baptist General Convention of Texas music and worship team is challenging Texas Baptists to raise another $50,000.

Contributions can be designated “SMOT-Ukraine Fire” and mailed to BGCT Music and Worship, 333 N. Washington, Dallas 75246.

An audience packs a church in Kherson, Ukraine, to hear a concert by the Singing Men of North Central Texas and a sermon by international evangelist Michael Gott

More than 4,500 people registered faith commitments at eight venues in Ukraine. International evangelist Michael Gott, who helped arrange the trip, has ministered in Ukraine more than 20 years with English schools and evangelistic meetings.

Don Blackley of Lake Pointe Church in Rockwall is the director of the group, one of six sponsored by the BGCT music and worship team.

See a video of the group's concert here.

Blog postings from the trip can be found here .

International evangelist Michael Gott delivers a sermon on the trip to Ukraine.

Members of the North Central Texas chapter of the Singing Men of Texas perform a concert.

ROUND ROCK—Most people who meet Angela Richardson have trouble connecting her up-beat, breezy attitude to her role as a foster mother-turned-adoptive mother who cares for three emotionally wounded children.

Richardson welcomes the challenge, but she resists any suggestion she’s special.

“I don’t feel comfortable when people call me a hero,” she said. “I was willing, and I showed up. God did the rest.”

Last year, Angela Richardson opened her home to two sisters and a brother who had endured severe abuse and neglect. In February, she adopted the three siblings. (PHOTO/Children at Heart Ministries)

In 2006, a friend at church introduced Richardson to Children at Heart Ministries’ STARRY foster care program. Richardson attended an orientation meeting and was hooked.

In February 2009, she received a phone call about two sisters and a brother who needed a temporary home. The siblings—ages 2, 3 and 7—had been severely abused and neglected by their parents.

“The shape they were in was worse that I could imagine and like nothing that I had ever seen,” she said.

For months, Richardson comforted the children through screaming, crying night terrors. And, although her hugs took much longer to be returned, she held them and encouraged them each and every day.

“My son wouldn’t hug. He would cower or hide. And my youngest daughter would just stand there like a rag doll,” she said.

“It was very sad, but I knew they would come to trust me eventually.”

Trust didn’t come easily. The children disliked police and feared most adults. But in time, they opened up to their foster mother, eventually disclosing even more details about their harrowing ordeals, Richardson said.

“One time, I had to go into the bathroom and cry after a conversation we had,” she said. “Their situation was so much worse than anyone knows.”

On Feb. 12, Richardson officially adopted all three, marking the end of one journey but the beginning of another.

Each day means untangling knots left behind by the children’s former lives.

“I tell them all the time that my job is to keep them safe, love them and be here for them,” Richardson said.

“I have learned through this process to be more flexible and rely on my faith.

“My faith is what really brought me through, because this tested me emotionally, spiritually and in every way possible.”

Richardson encourages prospective foster parents to attend an orientation session and talk to other foster parents to find out why they open their homes to foster children.

“Why do they do something that’s completely counterintuitive to our culture?” she said.

“Out there, it is about self and what can I get out of it. This is very much about what you can give back. You will hear foster parents say, ‘I did this to help them, and it’s amazing how God uses some of these children to actually help you.’”