BROWNSVILLE—When Osvaldo Lerma, pastor of Iglesia Bautista Filadelfia, prayerwalked the University of Texas at Brownsville campus months ago, he asked God to open doors for a Baptist Student Ministry to begin there. Little did he know God would use him and Eddie Sanchez, pastor of First Baptist Church in Los Fresnos, to answer that prayer.

Lerma joined other Christians on the prayerwalk during the Rio de Esperanza hunger tour of the Rio Grande Valley in September 2008.

The following spring, both Lerma and Sanchez felt a tug on their hearts to begin the campus ministry, even though they both are full-time pastors. They contacted Bruce McGowan, collegiate ministry director for the Baptist General Convention of Texas, to talk about organizing a ministry.

Shortly after, they registered the BSM as a student organization at the university, found faculty to sponsor the ministry and started advertising the BSM during summer classes. By August 2009, five students had signed up to participate in the leadership team and were helping Lerma and Sanchez plan opportunities to minister to and build relationships with the student body of more than 18,000 students.  
“The doors started opening quickly,” Lerma said. “We started during the summer promoting the BSM group. (A group) from First Baptist Church in Arlington came during the summer with a River Ministry project, and they helped us to recruit students by giving away water, pencils and information. We registered students and contacted interested ones before the fall semester began.”

Although the BSM began with a small group, by the end of the semester more than 130 students attended the biweekly free lunches provided by local churches and sponsored by the Baptist campus ministry.

Samuel Soto, a sophomore respiratory therapy major and president of the BSM, said the lunches give the BSM students a place to build relationships with other students, with the hope of sharing the gospel with them in the process.

“We are offering food to students because food is very expensive on campus,” Soto said. “With free food, they can go and eat and be with friends. We are also giving them an opportunity to see that there is something else for them. They can come and know the truth.”

Lerma and Sanchez encountered more than 600 students throughout the semester, even though they do not have an established budget or building for ministry.

The two pastors volunteer their time to lead the BSM, and a few churches have given offerings to provide support for events and training held by the ministry.

“To see the great desire of the leadership to work with the students and to share the gospel has been a great blessing to me,” Lerma said. “And to see how the Lord has been preparing things to happen has been a blessing. To see faculty and students come aboard is what we needed to grow in the future.”

Soto noted his involvement with the BSM already has strengthened his walk with the Lord, offering him spiritual leadership and training so he can share the love of Christ with other students on campus.

“Being involved has given me the opportunity to learn more skills to be a leader and for discipleship and evangelism,” Soto said.

“It has given more unity with other leaders and a chance to learn more about God. We want to spread the word of the Lord and to be united. We want our leaders to learn more skills, and I personally want to become a better leader to help local churches. We want the BSM to grow and for more people to learn about God.”

Robert Rueda, director of the BSM at the University of Texas Pan American about 70 miles away, helped Lerma and Sanchez with some of the planning for the semester. Rueda noted having a BSM on the UT at Brownsville campus once again is strategic in raising up strong Christian leaders in the Valley.

“UT-Brownsville is described as the southernmost university in Texas and the United States. It’s one block away from Mexico and is the beginning of the ministry in Texas. That is why it is key.”

Lerma also sees the new ministry as crucial because it will give a way for churches to be present on the campus and active in helping students.

As the BSM continues to grow this spring, Lerma said, the group plans to train leaders in the BSM to lead one-on-one discipleship times with students, encouraging relationships, spreading the gospel and helping other Christians learn how to live out their faith.

Eventually, Lerma would like to see the BSM grow to have a strong following of support churches so the BSM could hire a full-time director and establish a permanent location for the group, providing a place for constant spiritual growth and encouragement.

“I think more people’s spiritual needs could be met if they could find us every day and not just once a week,” he said.

“We could open the door for friendship, counseling, spiritual help and do more with the students.”

Church musician Lyall dies unexpectedly. Max Lyall, a concert and church pianist who taught 25 years at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, died unexpectedly Feb. 18. He was 71. Lyall, associate minister for music and worship at First Baptist Church in Oklahoma City, was assistant music editor for the church-music department of the Baptist Sunday School Board in Nashville, Tenn., from 1963 until 1966. Lyall was the pianist for meetings of the Southern Baptist Convention and Baptist World Alliance. He served on the hymnal committee for the 1991 edition of The Baptist Hymnal.

GuideStone offers tax guide for ministers. Ministers can find help in preparing their federal income tax returns from GuideStone Financial Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. The Ministers Tax Guide for 2009 Returns details recent changes to tax laws and their effect on ministers. The guide can be downloaded from the GuideStone website, www.GuideStone. org. GuideStone participants can order a free printed copy by calling customer service at (888) 984-8433 between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. weekdays.

• Dillon International will present a free adoption information meeting from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. March 18 at the Buckner Children’s Home campus in Dallas. A representative will give an overview of adoption from China, Korea, Haiti, India, Hong Kong and Nepal, plus new opportunities in Ghana. A domestic adoption program for Texas families and adoption programs in Russia, Ethiopia and Honduras, available through an affiliation with Buckner Adoption and Maternity Services, also will be discussed. For more information or to make a reservation to attend the meeting, call (214) 319-3426.

• Dallas Baptist University’s Gary Cook Graduate School of Leadership will host a leadership training seminar led by the National Center for Church Architecture March 27 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The “Effective Leadership for Church Building Projects” seminar will discuss facility assessment, implementation of building programs, guidelines for budget planning and working with architects, engineers, builders and municipalities. The seminar is designed for all levels of church leadership, including pastors, associate ministers and lay leaders. Space is limited. For more information, visit www.tncca.net.

• Baylor University has awarded Edward Burger, distinguished professor of mathematics at Williams College in Massachu-setts, the Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching. The award is the only national teaching award—with the single largest monetary reward of $200,000—presented by a college or university to an individual for exceptional teaching. His department at Williams College also will receive $25,000. He will teach in residence at Baylor during fall 2010. Two other finalists also received $15,000 each, and their departments each received $10,000.

• Mission Waco honored a number of volunteers at its annual banquet. Among the honorees were student volunteers of the year Andy Billnitzer, Tyler Meyer, Tre Anderson and James Kelly; adult volunteers of the year, Jeanette Cunningham, Marilyn Moore, Charles Hill and Beverly Hill; philanthropists of the year, David and Kay Cherry, and Carey and Brenda Hobbs; and church of the year, Lakeshore United Methodist Church. Mission Waco’s ministry is to the poor and marginalized of that city.

• Mark Grace has been named vice president for Baylor Health Care System’s newly created office of mission and ministry. He has served the organization the last 15 years as director of pastoral care and counseling. In addition, three directors of pastoral care also were named. David Lowe will direct Baylor’s western region, Mike Mullender will direct pastoral care at the Baylor University Medical Center campus and Bob Duncan will direct the eastern region. Carlos Bell also was named director of director of pastoral education. In addition, Don Sewell, formerly with the Baptist General Convention of Texas staff, has joined the staff as director of faith in action initiatives.

• Howard Payne University has created a marketing and communications division. Louise Sharp will lead the division as chief marketing officer and associate vice president for marketing and communications, as well as special assistant to the president. Kyle Mize serves as assistant vice president for communications. Kalie Lowrie is director of media relations. Kathy James is special events coordinator and executive assistant to the chief marketing officer.

Anniversaries

• Eagle’s Nest Missionary Church in Fort Worth, 15th, Feb. 21. Jason West is pastor.

• Gilliland Church in Truscott, 100th, March 14. A luncheon and fellowship time will be held after the morning service. A commemoration service will begin at 2 p.m. Direct meal reservations and requests of more information to brockett@srcaccess.net. Marq Brockett is pastor.

• First Church in Anton, 85th, April 11. A meal will follow the morning service. Bill Campbell is pastor.

Deaths

• Bob Mayfield, 54, Nov. 23 in Tyler. He was pastor of Pine Springs Church in Tyler at the time of his death. A graduate of Baylor University and Southwestern Theological Seminary, he began his ministry at age 18 as youth pastor at First Church in Gresham. While he seminary, he was pastor of Swan Baptist Church in Tyler. After serving a church in Kansas, he returned to Tyler to serve as director of the Baptist Student Union at Tyler Junior College and the University of Texas at Tyler 13 years. From 1996 until 2002, he was Baptist Student Ministry director at Texas A&M University. He then returned to Tyler to become pastor of Trinity Church for seven years. He moved to Pine Springs last August. He was active in Smith Association and served on the board of trustees of East Texas Baptist University. He is survived by his wife of 26 years, Pamela; son, Max; and mother-in-law, Betty Ryan.

• Albert Warnken, 85, Feb. 4 in Erick, Okla. A graduate of East Texas Baptist College and Southwestern Seminary, he was called to ministry in 1952 in Eagle Lake. Among the churches he served as pastor were First Church in Cumby, First Church in Queen City, Memorial Church in Grapevine, First Church in Jacksboro and a number of churches in Oklahoma. He also served as a revival evangelist in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Ohio, Utah and Oklahoma. He was director of missions for Fannin Association. He was preceded in death by his sisters Bernice Reese and Helen Miller. He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Helen; daughter, Sheryn Warnken; and son, Paul.

• Margarita Romero, 96, Feb. 10 in Beeville. A charter member of Primera Iglesia in Mineral, she was active in the church and association’s Woman’s Mission-ary Union programs. She was preceded in death by sons Isaac and Zaragosa. She is survived by her husband of 79 years, Catarino; daughters, Mary Burgos, Pauline Gonzalez, Esther Watson, Frances Guajardo and Anita Loa; sons, Mike, Richard, Catarino Jr. and Ramiro; sisters, Tomasita Chavez, Lillie Ramon, Marcela Gonzales and Sulema Ortiz; brother, Corando Guzman; 52 grandchildren; 62 great-grandchildren; and six great-great-grandchildren.

• BO Baker, 86, Feb. 18 in Plano. He was a noted churchman, international evangelist, author and lyricist. He began his preaching ministry while a student at Baylor University and was an integral part of the Youth Revival Movement that began there in the early 1940s. While a student there, he married Tina Pinson in 1948. After earning his master’s degree at Baylor, he enrolled at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. While a seminary student, he was pastor at churches at Gholson and Walnut Springs. Following graduation, he was pastor of Birchman Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Worth 10 years. In 1957, he began 16 years in evangelism, partnering with his musician brother, Dick. They travelled the world together, preaching and singing, and writing songs together along the way. Baker became pastor of Plymouth Park Baptist Church in Irving in 1973 and served there until his retirement in 1988. The church conferred on him pastor emeritus status. He continued to preach until the last year of his life. His final sermon was preached at First Baptist Church in Farmersville, where he and his brother grew up. He was the author of several books including Keeping Christmas and Believers at the Breaking Point. He contributed a note of Christmas reflection to the Baptist Standard for 34 years. He received many honors including Baylor University’s Founder’s Day Award and its W.R. White Meritorious Service Award. In recognition of his worldwide ministry, he received honorary doctor of divinity degrees from Baylor University and Dallas Baptist University. He was preceded in death by his first wife in 1983 and son, Richard, in 1999. He is survived by his wife, Ruth; brother, Dick; son, David; daughter, Lisa Baker; five grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

• Bill Wright, 67, Feb. 19 in Plains. He was pastor of First Church in Plains 18 years, and previously was pastor of First Church in Gordon 15 years. He also served three churches in the El Paso area. A member of the Executive Board of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, he led his church to become active in disaster relief ministry. He is survived by his wife of 46 years, Linda; sons, Greg and Shane; daughter, Kay Wright; sisters, Nell, Naomi and Nina; mother-in-law, Esther Connally; and four grandchildren.

• Raymond Jones, 83, Feb. 20 in Brownwood. A Texas Baptist pastor, he served at Voss Church in Talpa; Tennyson Church in Tennyson; Temple Church in Cruthersville; Veribest Church in Veribest; First Church in Santa Anna; First Church in Cotton Center; First Church in Sunnyside; and First Church in Sidney. He was preceded in death by his wife of 61 years, Lodema, in 2009; and his brothers, Jessie and Hurbert. He is survived by his daughter, Jeannette Bothwell; sons, Eddie, Ronald and Gilbert; sister, Velma Sager; brother, Hubert; 11 grandchildren; 19 great-grandchildren; and two great-great-grandchildren.

Ordained

• Jordan Ramey to the ministry at Sonterra Fellowship in Jarrell.

• Travis Marks as a deacon at Coleto Church in Victoria.

Revival

• First Church, Hearne; March 28-31; evangelist, David Hardage; music, Robert Burk-hart; pastor, Larry Blackmon.

Dillon licensed for adoptions from Nepal. Dillon International has received approval from Nepal’s Ministry of Women, Children & Social Welfare to place children from Nepal with adoptive families in the United States. Dillon also offers adoption services in China, Korea, Haiti, India and Hong Kong, with programs in Ethiopia, Russia and Honduras through its affiliation with Buckner International.

BCFS team serves Haiti orphanage, hospital. A Baptist Child & Family Services medical team has provided treatment to children and youth at the Haiti Children’s Rescue Mission and assumed night-shift emergency room duties at Hospital Adventiste. BCFS is directing operations that support the care of more than 250 inpatients, an average of 200 to 300 outpatients daily and 175 post-surgical patients. BCFS has been asked to maintain logistical and planning coordination of the hospital until administrators are comfortable resuming normal operations. Additionally, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services asked BCFS to send staff to support the government’s efforts to shelter and care for Haitian children who are brought to the United States to be united with their adoptive parents. Teams from the Texas-based agency will be stationed in Miami, Fla., for the next month to support that effort.

TBM volunteers report. Volunteers with Texas Baptist Men reported on “the activity of God” through the missions organization during the recent TBM Convention and board meeting in Dallas. In 2009, TBM workers taught water purification techniques in Cuba and participated in mud-out operations in the Philippines. Retiree Builders completed about 70 projects. In just the first six weeks of 2010, TBM led the Texas Baptist on-site response to the earthquake in Haiti, distributing water filters and initiating a program to train Haitians to build latrines. TBM presented its outstanding service award to Homer Thornton, a layman from First Baptist Church in Dallas. Participants at the convention approved a $1.97 million TBM budget for 2010, down 15 percent from 2009, and they learned that as TBM ministries have expanded and funds available from the BGCT Cooperative Program have shrunk, TBM has become responsible for raising more than 73 percent of its budget.

Restitution being made. Pat Graham, former president of Valley Baptist Missions Education Center, regularly has been making monthly restitution payments for more than half a year after pleading “no contest” to theft charges, reported Othal Brand, chair of the center’s board. The center discovered financial irregularities in its regular financial audit not long before Graham resigned in mid-2006. Last May, a Cameron County District Court placed Graham on 10 years probation. Terms of probation included paying $68,336.76 in restitution, plus assorted fines and court costs, as well as performing 30 hours community service.

TAG board elects new leader. The Texans Against Gambling board elected Mike Weber of Willow Park as its chair. The board recognized Tom Wilbanks of Mesquite for his eight years as chair and more than 20 years on the board.

• Corey Bearden has resigned as minister to students at First Church in San Marcos.

• Mark Bennett to North Park Church in Sherman as associate pastor, worship/family.

• Cody Broussard has resigned as pastor of Central Church in Luling.

• Tony Nickel to First Church in Graham as pastor from First Church in Harrah, Okla.

WASHINGTON (ABP) — U.S. foreign policy is hampered by a secular bias that causes policy makers to underestimate the role of religion in world affairs, a Midwestern think tank said in a 100-page report released Feb. 23.

A task force convened by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs recommended engaging religious communities instead "an uncompromising secular political alternative" that now characterizes the United States' approach to international affairs.

The 32-member task force — co-chaired by Notre Dame professor Scott Appleby and Richard Cizik, president of the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good — said ignorance about religion is a blind spot that inhibits "smart thinking" about U.S. decisions concerning foreign aid, building relationships with nations and tackling multi-national challenges like climate change, fighting disease and advancing human rights.

For example, the report said, Al Qaeda in Iraq bombed a Shia Islam holy site in 2006 to provoke religious conflict in Iraqi society along already strained religious lines. Preoccupied with strategic operations against insurgents and terrorists, U.S. leaders almost entirely ignored the incident and did not grasp its significance until about four-and-one-half months later.

The task force said the influence of religious groups is growing in many parts of the world, affecting virtually all sectors of society from politics and culture to business and science. Since 9/11, however, U.S. foreign policy has viewed religion as a problem in the area of terrorism and not as a potential source of creativity, inspiration and commitment to resolve conflict.

The task force suggested a better way of "authentic engagement" with religious leaders and communities that does not focus solely on the fault line between Christians and Muslims. The rise of Pentecostal Christianity in Latin America and growth of Christian churches in Africa and Asia, for example, are important religious developments that should not be ignored.

The report said ignoring or trying to isolate religious actors in world affairs often has the unintended effect of feeding extremism fueled by personal, cultural and religious identity. It said the U.S. would be better off to support and empower progressive and benevolent elements within societies and cultures shaped by religion.

"Religious activism was behind the September 11 attacks, but also the fall of the Berlin Wall," the report said. "It fuels bloody communal conflict in Bosnia and Sudan, but also peace and forgiveness in South Africa and Northern Ireland. It has motivated the politics of Osama bin Laden and violent Hindu nationalists, but also of Pope John Paul II and the Dalai Lama. It is pivotal to the fate of Afghanistan, India, Iraq, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Yemen and many other locales where the United States has vital foreign policy interests."

The task force said globalization has had a positive effect on religious revival around the world, but it has also fueled fear, resentment and opposition in countries where globalization is seen as "Americanization," an unacceptable intrusion on religious, social, cultural and national identities.

For that reason, the task force said, the U.S. should take care to avoid actions that use or appear to use religion "instrumentally" by trying to manipulate religion in pursuit of narrowly drawn interests.

The group said most of today's wars and conflicts do not rise directly from theological disputes within or across religious boundaries, but religion lends a "sacred aura and intensity" when religious actors inspire violence by framing it as an act of justice. Because Western powers understand religion so poorly, they sometimes escalate tensions unintentionally in ways such as identifying sympathetic clerics as "moderates," a label seen by some as a synonym for lackeys of the United States.

Even U.S. promotion of human rights, the task force said, is sometimes misunderstood as imposition of Western imperialism or a Christian crusade. The role of women in society is particularly vexing, the group said, because advancing women's rights can also challenge existing social structures and local and religious traditions.

"The challenge for the United States is to understand and present human rights as a global rather than a solely Western value," the report recommended. "Communities and cultures around the world, each in their own ways, have the potential to affirm the canon of human rights and recognize it as their own. Accordingly, the United States must recognize that human rights can be implemented effectively and robustly only in a manner consistent with different traditions and beliefs."

The task force said one problem facing U.S. foreign policy is uncertainty about how the First Amendment, which prohibits the government from establishing religion in the United States, applies to other countries. Some find it hard to accept that religion belongs in policy discussions in a secular and democratic state.

"The challenge before us is to marginalize religious extremists, not religion," the task force said. "Especially where religious extremism is a central factor in a conflict or the political landscape, it is all the more important that there be more tolerant religious voices that can counter the extremists and provide alternative views from within their own tradition."

"Promoting an uncompromising Western secularism as a solution to religious extremism can have the unintended effect of feeding extremism by further threatening traditional sources of personal, cultural and religious identity," the report continued. "Contra the secularists, the best way to counter extremist religion is with religion that is civil and public, not weakened or privatized."

–Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

DALLAS—As the Texas Hope 2010 effort to share the gospel with every person in the state by Easter Sunday enters its final weeks, Texas Baptists should see April 4 as a stepping stone, not a finish line, speakers told the Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board.

“The great thing about this dream is that more people will have heard (the gospel) than if we had never dreamed the dream,” BGCT President David Lowrie told the group.

Lowrie, pastor of First Baptist Church in Canyon, acknowledged even in his community, some people remain unreached. But he urged Texas Baptists to continue beyond Easter their efforts to share the Christian message of salvation.

David Lowrie

BGCT Executive Director Randel Everett likewise stressed the importance of building on the momentum created by Texas Hope 2010 with its three emphases—prayer, care and share. Already, he reported, Texas Baptists are taking a lead role in a broad-based initiative to eliminate hunger in the state by 2015.

Between Easter and the BGCT annual meeting in McAllen in November, he noted, Texas Baptists will begin discussing how to implement an Acts 1:8 strategy.

“What is your church’s Jerusalem? What is its Judea? What is its Samaria?” he asked, echoing the New Testament verse that records Jesus’ instruction to his disciples to be witnesses locally, regionally and to the most remote parts of the earth.

“When we sow the word of the kingdom (of God), there will be a supernatural harvest. When we keep the seed in our pocket, nothing happens,” he said.

Jill Larsen, BGCT treasurer and chief financial officer, reported Texas Cooperative Program gifts in 2009 totaled $35,347,969—down about 7 percent from 2008 and at 86.5 percent of budget.

Gifts to the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas Missions totaled $3,862,011, down nearly 11 percent from 2009. However, gifts to the Texas Baptist Offering for World Hunger were $900,792, compared to $783,763 the previous year.

Larsen also reported the FBI was continuing its investigation into alleged misappropriation of funds by some church starters in the Rio Grande Valley.

In the fall, the FBI requested additional documents in addition to ones already provided by the BGCT, and Larsen said she, Everett and Associate Executive Director Steve Vernon met with FBI agents and attorneys to provide the requested information and express their desire to cooperate fully with the investigation.

While reports—particularly related to ministries provided following the earthquake that rocked Haiti in January—consumed most of the Executive Board meeting, the board also:

• Approved a recommendation from the committee to nominate boards of affiliated ministries to elect Franklin Scott of Alamo Heights Baptist Church in San Antonio to fill a vacancy on the board of Baptist Health Foundation of San Antonio.

• Elected six directors to fill vacancies on the Executive Board—Jeff Johnson, pastor of First Baptist Church in Del Rio; Bob Billups, associate pastor of First Baptist Church in Denton; Donna Fulfer of South Garland Baptist Church; Wes Johnson, pastor of First Baptist Church in Kerens; Ron Lyles, pastor of South Main Baptist Church in Pasadena; and Jim Nelson of Hyde Park Baptist Church in Austin.

• Authorized Executive Board Chair Debbie Ferrier to appoint a study committee in response to a motion introduced at the 2009 BGCT annual meeting. The original motion concerned a potential bylaw change dealing with the process for challenging the seating of messengers to the annual meeting.

• Approved the creation of an ad hoc study committee to consider how Texas Baptists can develop ways to address violence along the Texas/Mexico border. The committee, formed in response to a motion at the 2009 BGCT annual meeting, will report to the 2010 annual meeting in McAllen.

• Adopted a unified constitution for the Singing Men of Texas and Singing Women of Texas to satisfy IRS regulations and allow the groups to operate under the BGCT’s tax-exempt status. Previously, the 13 regional groups operated under separate but similar constitutions.

OLSO, Norway (ABP) — Leaders of the registered Baptist Union of Uzbekistan claim continuing harassment by the country's legal system and a media campaign intended to smear the group as a dangerous cult that targets children for proselytizing.

Forum 18, a Norwegian news service that tracks stories about abuses of religious freedom, reported Feb. 22 that a Baptist forced to appear in the trial of three Baptist leaders convicted in October of illegal religious activity at a union-sponsored camp last summer recently was ordered to pay a fine imposed in his absence by the same court.

Valery Konovalov told Forum 18 that he signed an interrogation record without reading it under threat of a prosecutor who told him he was a witness but at any moment could be turned into a crime suspect.

Last fall a judge in Tashkent imposed massive fines against three top leaders of the Baptist union found guilty of tax evasion and involving children in religious activities without their parents' permission at Camp4Joy, a summer camp held several years for children that became target of a government crackdown last July.

A city court later dropped the fines but left standing an order that the three — including Pavel Peichev, who has headed the Baptist union since 1994 — pay back taxes and be suspended from their leadership positions for three years.

The Baptist leaders argued during the trial that as a registered religious body the union is exempt from paying taxes but reluctantly paid the alleged debt in order to get the matter behind them. Now, Dimitri Pitirimov — one of the convicted leaders — told Forum 18 he is more concerned about who will lead the Baptist union in Peichev's absence. An interim leader is in place and elections are scheduled for a new leader in May.

Meanwhile, negative media portrayals continue to give Baptists a bad name in Uzbekistan, which is cracking down on minority religions that the government considers extremist groups.

The arrests last summer followed articles by a government-sponsored news agency the Baptists claimed falsely accused them of unlawfully teaching children religion and misusing resort facilities.

In February, Uzbek television broadcast an expose titled "Grief of 'Joy,'" which accused the Baptists of making "zombies" out of people, encouraging them to sell their houses and give the money to the church. The program warned citizens that Baptists used deception to trick children in missionary activity that if successful would create a "large army" of converts.

Pitirimov called the allegations "outrageous lies."

"We now avoid telling people we are Baptists," he told Forum 18. "People try to avoid us when we say we are Baptists."

Similar programs have incited intolerance of state-disfavored Muslims, Jehovah's Witnesses, Bahais and various Protestant groups. Such activities prompted the United States State Department to list Uzbekistan as one of eight "Countries of Particular Concern," a designation for the world's worst violators of religious freedom.

In January police in the central Syrdarya Region arrested Tohar Haydarov, a Baptist, on drug charges punishable by up to five years in prison after raiding a peaceful meeting of local Baptists. An anonymous witness told Forum 18 that police planted the drugs on Haydarov. Acquaintances said Haydarov does not even smoke cigarettes, let alone use drugs, and was being persecuted for his beliefs.

–Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

Previous stories:

Court in Uzbekistan finds Baptists guilty of running kids' camp

Uzbek Baptist leaders stand trial on charges supporters call false

Uzbek Baptist head, two other leaders face 3-year prison term

Uzbekistan charges Baptist camp with crimes

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) — A task force studying ways to make the Southern Baptist Convention more effective recommended greater flexibility and cooperation among state and national entities in a progress report to the SBC Executive Committee Feb. 22.

Ronnie Floyd, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Springdale, Ark., and chairman of a 22-member task force appointed last summer by SBC President Johnny Hunt, said the group will meet at least once more before releasing a final report May 3 to be presented at the SBC annual meeting June 15-16 in Orlando, Fla.

"We believe the messengers of the Southern Baptist Convention in Orlando expect change and expect the leaders in our convention to lead us toward the changes that are needed," Floyd said.

Six components

While any structural changes suggested in the report would fall under purview of boards of trustees of various SBC entities, the task force proposed six specific components of a vision for Southern Baptists to champion in the future.

The first calls for a "new and healthy culture" that provides local Southern Baptist churches with a "missional vision" to present the gospel and make disciples in North America and around the globe.

Floyd said a new denominational structure should be characterized by qualities including Christ-likeness, unity, trust and recognition of the responsibility of the local church for fulfilling the Great Commission.

"Our present culture represents First Corinthians 3 much more than First Corinthians 13," Floyd said. "Envy, strife and division need to become unacceptable. Instead, let this world know us by the depths of our love for Jesus, the gospel and one another."

The second component calls for the convention's North American Mission Board to be "reinvented and released" in order to prioritize church planting in America's cities and among under-served people groups.

Stark realities

To do that, Floyd said, Southern Baptists must address "one of the stark realities" of the way the convention currently functions. Two thirds of Cooperative Program dollars are spent on one third of the population that lives in the Bible Belt, while one third of the unified budget goes to the two thirds of Americans living in states in the West and Northeast with a much smaller Southern Baptist presence.

The task force recommends phasing out over four years cooperative agreements with Baptist state conventions, funding mechanisms that evolved in the 20th century to divide Cooperative Program funds between state and national conventions and then kick back $50 million to state conventions for missionaries funded jointly with NAMB.

Floyd said ending the agreements would give NAMB freedom to budget for a national strategy instead of committing the bulk of its funds to established Baptist state conventions in the South. Future partnerships between state conventions and NAMB would be project-driven and determined as part of the national board's overarching strategy for North America.

Globalization

At the same time, Floyd said, globalization has flattened the world so that people groups engaged by highly trained International Mission Board missionaries are also found on American soil. A third component would allow the IMB to reach "unreached and under-served people groups without regard to any geographic limitations."

Task force members said the strategy would create "a new synergy" between the North American and International mission boards.

"I think in Southern Baptist life it's time for all hands on deck," task force member Robert White told reporters. "If we can't work together we need to learn how to work together."

White, executive director of the Georgia Baptist Convention, acknowledged that changes suggested by the task force would require improved communication between Southern Baptist entities.

"I think a lot of this can be solved if the president of the International Mission Board and the president of the North American Mission Board will just sit down and meet," White said. "I hate to say that hasn't happened, but it ought to happen and it can happen on a regular basis. If they wanted to these two gentlemen could form a panel that would work together from both of these different agencies."

Let states lead in Cooperative Program promotion

The fourth component recommended by the task force is to move ministry assignments for promotion of the Cooperative Program and stewardship education from the SBC Executive Committee, which assumed them in a denominational restructuring in 1997, to the Baptist state conventions, which were understood to be primarily responsible for promoting and gathering funds for the unified budget when the plan was developed in the 1920s.

A fifth component reaffirms the Cooperative Program as the "central means" for supporting work of the convention, but also proposes a new nomenclature of "Great Commission Giving" for gifts designated to the Southern Baptist Convention, a state convention or local association instead of through the unified budget.

Task force members said that would shift the focus on churches that give smaller amounts than a traditional benchmark of 10 percent of undesignated offerings through the Cooperative Program away from being "competitive" with the CP to instead "complementing it for the sake of the gospel."

Let IMB receive 51%

The final component calls for increasing the International Mission Board's Cooperative Program allocation in the 2010-2011 budget by 1 percent to 51 percent, a both "symbolic and substantial" change that for the first time in history would mean that more than one half of monies collected through the CP goes to international missions.

Viewing distribution of the Cooperative Program as a pie chart, that would require reducing spending to other ministries by 1 percent. The task force said moving assignments for Cooperative Program promotion and stewardship education from the Executive Committee to state conventions should free up at least 1 percent of "facilitating ministries" that can then be reallocated to international missions.

Floyd acknowledged the realignment would blur boundaries delineated in program assignments for various SBC entities developed over the years.

"We have a choice to make," he told reporters. "Either we can sit back and play it safe with lines so clearly drawn you get your hand spanked if you cross over, or we can say: 'Hey, let's roll up our sleeves for the gospel. There's plenty of lost people. Let's go, and let's make a difference.'"

–Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

WASHINGTON (ABP) — Presidents of five historically African-American Baptist denominations announced Feb. 12 they were collaborating to respond more effectively to human need in Haiti.

Presidents of the Lott Carey Baptist Foreign Mission Convention; National Baptist Convention, USA; National Baptist Convention of America; National Missionary Baptist Convention of America; and Progressive National Baptist Convention formed the African-American Baptist Mission Collaboration.

Goatley

Murray

Representing more than 10 million Baptists in the United States, the coalition exists to link resources to create financial and technical synergies in responding through relief and recovery for Haiti, advocate for just and compassionate government policies toward Haiti and work toward sustainable community development in the island nation devastated by the Jan. 12 earthquake.

"This collaboration is essential for the kind of response that is needed in Haiti," said Julius Scruggs, president of the National Baptist Convention, USA.

C. C. Robertson, president of the National Missionary Baptist Convention of America, expressed "100-percent support of this unprecedented collaboration."

"The collaboration will help us to enlarge the relationships and partnerships that our different Conventions now have on the ground," said Stephen Thurston, president of the National Baptist Convention of America.

Scruggs

Smith

Thurston

T. DeWitt Smith, Jr., president of the Progressive National Baptist Convention said the collaboration among Baptists would "create a platform for even more expansive networking and cooperation."

Robert Murray, president of the Lott Carey Baptist Foreign Mission Convention predicted the effort "will be good for the people of Haiti and good for our witness to Jesus Christ."

The leaders plan to share more details of the collaboration at a news conference in Chicago during the first week in March.

"This collaboration among African-American Baptists is an answer to a unique call," said David Goatley, executive secretary-treasurer of the Lott Carey Foreign Mission Convention. "The need and opportunity for ministry, empowerment and advocacy for the benefit of our Haitian sisters and brothers is, in a peculiar sense, a 21st century Macedonian Call."

The "Macedonian Call" refers to a story in the 16th chapter of Acts where the Apostle Paul responds to a night vision of a man from Macedonia entreating him to "come over into Macedonia, and help us."

Goatley said African-American Baptist leaders decided to follow Paul's example to "immediately" seek to go to Haiti because God "has called us there together."

–Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

Pastor and evangelist BO Baker Jr. died Feb. 18 in Plano at age 86. He was a noted churchman, international evangelist, author and lyricist.

He began his preaching ministry while a student at Baylor University and was an integral part of the Youth Revival Movement that began there in the early 1940s. While a student there, he married Tina Pinson in 1948.

After earning his master’s degree at Baylor, he enrolled at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. While a seminary student, he was pastor at churches at Gholson and Walnut Springs.

BO Baker

Following graduation, he was pastor of Birchman Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Worth 10 years.

In 1957, he began 16 years in evangelism, partnering with his musician brother, Dick. They travelled the world together, preaching and singing, and writing songs together along the way.

Baker became pastor of Plymouth Park Baptist Church in Irving in 1973 and served there until his retirement in 1988. The church conferred on him pastor emeritus status.

He continued to preach until the last year of his life. His final sermon was preached at First Baptist Church in Farmersville, where he and his brother grew up.

He was the author of several books including Keeping Christmas and Believers at the Breaking Point. He contributed a note of Christmas reflection to the Baptist Standard for 34 years.

He received many honors including Baylor University’s Founder’s Day Award and its W.R. White Meritorious Service Award. In recognition of his worldwide ministry, he received honorary doctor of divinity degrees from Baylor University and Dallas Baptist University.

He was preceded in death by his first wife in 1983 and son, Richard, in 1999.

He is survived by his wife, Ruth; brother, Dick; son, David; daughter, Lisa Baker; five grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

TYLER, Texas (ABP) — Two young men suspected of setting 10 East Texas churches on fire were active in the youth group of a Southern Baptist congregation before drifting away from church after the mother of one of them died three years ago.

David McAllister, father of 21-year-old Daniel George McAllister, one of two men arrested Feb. 21 on an arson charge, told the Tyler Morning Telegraph he had struggled with keeping his son on the right track since his wife, who home-schooled the boy and kept him active in First Baptist Church in Ben Wheeler, Texas, died from a heart attack and stroke.

McAllister

Carlton Young, pastor of the Baptist General Convention of Texas-affiliated church for 15 years, remembered Wanda McAllister as the "spiritual anchor" of the family.

"I knew her death affected him tremendously, but I hadn't seen him enough since his mother died to know how much," Young told the Tyler newspaper. "It was a really traumatic experience for their family."

Young said neither McAllister nor the other suspect, 19-year-old Jason Robert Bourque, had attended the church for a year and a half. He said their attendance fell off after McAllister's mother died and Bourque's family moved from Ben Wheeler, a town of 600 east of Dallas, to Lindale, Texas, about 20 miles away.

Police arrested Bourque in Van Zandt County and McAllister in San Antonio. Both arrests were without incident and both suspects were taken to Smith County to face charges of arson in the Feb. 8 blaze that destroyed Dover Baptist Church in Tyler, Texas.

Bourque

Authorities believe the duo is responsible for nine church fires set between Jan. 1 and Feb. 8 in four East Texas communities. They also are suspected in three attempted church break-ins during the rash of arsons. Additional charges are expected to be filed.

Police say they believe that a Jan. 19 arson that destroyed First Baptist Church of Temple in Central Texas is unrelated to the East Texas church fires. An official with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said Feb. 21 that a person of interest has been identified in the Temple fire, which caused an estimated $15 million in damage.

Police did not discuss a motive for setting the East Texas church fires, but they said they had known about the two suspects for several weeks. Officials said a telephone hotline tip triggered the arrests and that DNA evidence linked one of the two men to the scene of one of the fires.

News of the arrests brought relief to area churches, which had been advised to take security measures such as installing alarm systems and surveillance cameras and members taking turns guarding church buildings in what law-enforcement officials called "church patrols."

In Texas church arson is a first-degree felony punishable by five to 99 years in prison. Bourque and McAllister are being held on $10 million bond.

"No investigation is finished until guilt is proven in court, but today marks a significant milestone," Robert Champion, Special Agent in Charge of ATF in Dallas, said Feb. 21. "The arsons in these communities have been devastating, but the citizens have been resilient and aided each other and the investigation."

The men were arrested by a task force created Jan. 20 to stop the arsons and find the people responsible for them.

Hundreds of local law enforcement officers, more than 200 personnel from the Texas Department of Public Safety — including Texas Rangers, Highway Patrol troopers and Criminal Investigation Division agents — and numerous FBI and ATF agents and specialists worked the case in a three-county area covering 2,648 square miles and an estimated 713 churches.

"By working closely with our local and federal partners, we brought tremendous resources to this investigation, working around the clock, and culminating in these arrests," said Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety. "The arsons of these houses of worship were despicable and cowardly acts, and Texas won't stand for this kind of criminal activity."

The pastor at First Baptist Church in Ben Wheeler told the Tyler newspaper that in hindsight, he wishes he had taken it more seriously four or five years ago when Bourne and McAllister snuck into the church building after finding an unlocked door. Nothing was damaged or taken, but Young's wife spotted the youngsters sneaking out of the building during the early morning hours.

Young said he attributed the incident to youthful indiscretion by a couple of kids finding a way to play in the youth room. At the time he said he decided not to discuss it with the boys' parents, but now he wishes he had used harsher words.

McAllister's father agreed. "If something would have been done then, then maybe this could have been different," he said, adding that he and his wife should have punished their son at the time.

Bourque's family declined to discuss his arrest, but Young remembered him as "mischievous" as well as intelligent and capable of doing anything he set his mind to. The pastor said he was not aware of the boys being involved in any illegal activity and that he and the church were in "total disbelief" on hearing about their connection to the church arsons.

"I would have never dreamed it," Young said. "If you had told me they were caught doing some youthful, stupid thing, then OK. But to dream of them … we were totally devastated to think they would do that."

–Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

Previous stories:

String of Texas church fires reaches 10

Church fire forces closing of day care

Fire that destroyed historic Texas church ruled arson 

Texas church regroups after historic sanctuary burns