• Barry Donham to College Heights Church in Plainview as minister of youth.

• Steve Mosley to Second Church in Levelland as minister of students and education, where he had been serving as interim.

• Jerry Tanner to Calvary Church in Weimar as pastor.

• Heidi Ullrich to First Church in La Grange as children’s minister.

• Barry Whedbee to Haven Heights Church in Fort Smith, Ark., as minister of education from College Heights Church in Plainview, where he was associate pastor of education.

• Nathan Ziglar to First Church in Alvarado as minister of youth.

• The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor winter commencement will be held Dec. 11 at 1 p.m. at the Mayborn Campus Center. The university anticipates 182 students will receive baccalaureate degrees, and 25 will receive master’s degrees.

• Riders of the Son, the Waco chapter of the Christian Motorcyclist Association, recently visited 13 churches to collect gifts that will be resold at Mission Waco’s Christmas toy store, which allows families to buy the toys at 20 percent of their retail value. Ten vehicles carrying the donated toys followed 58 motorcyclists through the toy run. The ride ended at the Church Under the Bridge, where volunteers unloaded thousands and piled them high in front of the stage to cap the worship service there. Last year, more than 1,800 families were supplied with toys; this year’s goal is 2,000. Waco-area Baptist churches participating in the event included Calvary Church, Meadowbrook Church, Harris Creek Church, Beacon Hills Church, Speegleville Church and Church Under the Bridge.

• Baptist Child & Family Services provided Thanksgiving dinner for more than 200 young adults who have aged out of the state foster care system. The event, held at Trinity Church in San Antonio, gives youth a place to celebrate the holiday and spend time with their peers and mentors. BCFS transitional living services provides services such as health care, housing, job training, education and financial support to foster youth between the ages of 16 and 21 to prepare them for life on their own.

• The Collegian, Houston Baptist University’s student newspaper, has received an All-American rating from the Associated Collegiate Press for the 2008-2009 academic year. The newspaper earned marks with distinction in five categories—coverage and content; writing and editing; photos, art and graphics; layout and design; and leadership.

• Baylor Law School presented juris doctor degrees to 12 graduates during ceremonies last month. Baylor University law professor Jeremy Counseller was the keynote speaker, and Philip Haines, the highest-ranking student in the commencement class, also spoke.

• Dearing Garner, executive director of Children’s Emergency Relief International, participated in a panel addressing international health and human services at the University of Houston’s Graduate College of Social Work. CERI is the overseas arm of Baptist Child & Family Services. Garner spoke about the roles psychosocial work, foster care, child protection, and orphan and transitional care play in CERI’s overseas ministry.

• The Howard Payne University moot court team of Cara Brewer and Lauren Teel took second place at the Texas Undergraduate Moot Court Association southwest regional championship. The competition took place at Texas Tech University with 32 teams participating. Robert Davis and Jon Beaubien advanced to the quarterfinals. As a result of their success, both teams received bids for the national tournament to be held in Miami, Fla., next month. Five HPU students, more than any other school, also placed among the top 10 orators in the individual competition.

Anniversaries

• Marvin Miles, 10th, as pastor of First Church in Smiley and 40th in the ministry, Nov. 8.

• Alan Reed, fifth, as associate pastor at Yorktown Church in Corpus Christi, Dec. 1.

• Jack Hutson, 30th, as pastor of Vanderbilt Church in Vanderbilt, Dec. 13. Tommy Billings, director of missions for Guadalupe Association, will present a plaque from the association and a certificate from the Baptist General Convention of Texas at a reception from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

• Ramiro Castillo, 15th, as pastor of Southern Oaks Church in Bryan.

Retiring

• James Teel, as pastor of Oplin Church in Clyde, Dec. 31. He has served the church five years. Other churches where he ministered include New Hope Church in Stamford, West Fork Church in Azle, Pleasant Valley Church in Olney, Primera Iglesia in Hamlin and Harmony Church in Eastland. He also served as a missionary 27 years in Ecuador, Argentina, the Dominican Republic and Canada. He also worked at Hardin-Simmons University on two occassions and worked for the Stewardship Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Deaths

• Merle Harrell, 85, Nov. 20 in Dallas. She was minister to preschool children at Park Cities Church in Dallas from 1973 to 1976, First Church in Jackson, Miss., from 1976 to 1978, and Wilshire Church in Dallas from 1978 to 1994. She frequently taught and trained Sunday school leadership throughout Texas and surrounding states. She was preceded in death by her husband, D.K. She is survived by her sons, Kirk and Kent; and three grandchildren.

• Pinky Gray, 83, Nov. 22 in Fort Worth. After graduation from Howard Payne College in 1948, she went to Buckner Ophans’ Home to teach at the campus school. After a number of years, she returned to Howard Payne as associate dean of women and a year later became dean of women. While there, she met her husband, Bill, and left the school to become the wife of a pastor. They served at First Church in Tomball and then First Church in Willis before joining the Foreign Mission Board as missionaries to Mexico. After 23 years in Mexico, they returned to Texas so he could begin the Baptist General Convention of Texas Partnership Missions office. She soon worked in the counseling department of the Southern Baptist Radio & Television Commission, where she did all the Spanish counseling for 10 years. She also accompanied her husband on overseas trips and encouraged the women and churches in those countries. She is survived by her husband of 56 years; son, Brad; daughter, Anna Gray; sister Edith Martin; and one grandson.

• Harry Garvin, 71, Nov. 25 in Cisco. A graduate of Howard Payne College and Southwestern Seminary, he was ordained to the ministry in 1957. He and his wife, Doris, served 25 years in Uganda and another year in Kenya as missionaries with the Foreign Mission Board. The past six years, he has been pastor of Lake Leon Church in Eastland. He was preceded in death by his brother, Carroll; and two grandchildren, Elizabeth Garvin and Isaiah Murray. He is survived by his wife of 53 years; sons, Harry Jr. and Kenneth; daughters, Tamara Burkman, Deborah Hinely, Rebecca Murray and Angie Wetherholt; brothers, Fred, Tommy, Leon and Rex; sisters, Robbie Cason, Rose Krupa and Rebecca Garvin; 11 grandchildren; and one great-grandson.

ATLANTA (ABP) — A north Georgia prosecutor says he will let a grand jury decide whether to bring criminal charges against undercover police officers involved in the fatal shooting of a Baptist minister during a botched drug sting.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Dec. 1 that Brian Rickman, district attorney for three counties in northeast Georgia, said in an interview he was turning over a Georgia Bureau of Investigation's report of the Sept. 1 shooting death of Jonathan Ayers, to a Mountain Judicial Circuit grand jury. Ayers was pastor of Shoal Creek Baptist Church in Lavonia, Ga.,

The Independent-Mail in Anderson, S.C., quoted unnamed court officials saying the grand jury will hear the case Dec. 15 as part of its regular session. The grand jury is expected to be in session at least three days to consider the report and other possible indictments unrelated to the shooting incident.

Ayers, 28, was fatally shot outside a gas station in Toccoa, Ga., where he had stopped to withrdaw money from an ATM. Security video showed a speeding black SUV pull alongside his car as he prepared to leave and plainclothes police officers jumping out and shouting orders to him to get out of the car. 

Instead, Ayers tried to drive away. Police fired at the car, wounding Ayers. Ayers crashed his vehicle a short distance down the road. He was taken to a hospital and died following surgery.

Officers said Ayers was not a part of an ongoing drug investigation, but they wanted to question him because he had just given a ride to a woman who was. Police said Ayers nearly ran over the officers while attempting to flee.

Friends and family of Ayers said he probably was trying to run away because he didn't know the men were police and probably thought they were going to rob him. They said he had been ministering to the woman for some time trying to convince her to turn her life around and had given her a ride and money moments before the shooting.

The district attorney's office reported Nov. 12 it had received a copy of the GBI investigative report and was reviewing it to see if a follow-up investigation was warranted. The DA also brought in two outside prosecutors to assist, and Rickman offered to recuse himself if the family desired.

"I want to make sure it's as transparent" and as "fair" as possible, Rickman told the Journal-Constitution.

Supporters of the Ayers family rallied Oct. 3 in a vigil to remember the slain pastor and call for justice in his death. Participants said they did not want local officials to sweep the investigation under a rug. A second march and rally is scheduled Dec. 5 at the courthouse in Toccoa, Ga.

A website and blog were set up to draw attention to the story.

–Bob Allen is managing editor of Associated Baptist Press.

Previous ABP stories:

Probe of Georgia pastor's shooting expected to take another month

Rally planned for Georgia pastor killed in botched drug sting

Georgia Baptist pastor killed in botched drug sting

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) — Feeling the effects of a bad economy, several Southern Baptist Convention-affiliated state and regional conventions reduced budgets in annual meetings held in recent weeks across the nation.

The Baptist General Convention of Texas, which includes 4,500 churches with 2.3 million members, approved a reduced budget for the second straight year. A 2010 budget of $44 million represents a nearly 10 percent decrease from 2009. Last year the Texas convention cut spending by 8 percent.  Jill Larsen, treasurer and chief financial officer for the 2.3 million-member BGCT, described the spending plan as "a realistic, pretty conservative budget."

The Georgia Baptist Convention also approved its second-consecutive reduced budget. Next year's $45.5 million spending plan is $4.1 million, or 8.2 percent, below the previous year. Last year Georgia Baptists cut spending by 5 percent. The state convention has reduced staff twice in the last year, eliminating a total of 27 jobs.

"This has been the most challenging economy in my memory and has significantly impacted all of us," Robert White, executive director of the convention, told the Christian Index.

The 4,000-church Baptist State Convention of North Carolina approved its smallest budget since 2000. At $34.8 million, next year's budget is $4.8 million leaner than the one in 2009. Next year's budget is also the first since 1991 that does not include an option for funding national entities outside the Southern Baptist Convention, like the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Baptist World Alliance and Associated Baptist Press. Last year's convention voted to collapse North Carolina's four giving plans into one.

A few state conventions managed to buck the trend. The 2,200-church Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, formed in 1998, adopted a budget of $24.8 million, up 1 percent from a current budget of $24.5 million.

The State Convention of Baptists in Indiana approved a record Cooperative Program budget of $4.8 million, up 2.8 percent from the current year. Convention leaders followed standard policy of projecting income for 2010 equal to actual receipts in 2008, the last complete year on the books at the beginning of the budget-planning process, even though gifts from 370 affiliated churches are running 4 percent behind last year.

"We will closely monitor our 2010 receipts and make adjustments as necessary," Executive Director Stephen Davis wrote in the Indiana Baptist Magazine. "One thing I know: God will provide for our needs."

The 1,600-church Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma approved a record 2010 Cooperative Program budget of $26 million, up 3.2 percent from the current $25.2 million budget. Most of the increase is driven by increased operating costs. "For example, we have budgeted for a 12 percent increase in medical insurance next year, but hope it comes in under that," Kerry Russell, leader of the BGCO finance team, told the Baptist Messenger.

With 1,400 churches, the Arkansas Baptist State Convention adopted a budget just under $21.5 million for 2010. That represents a 2.5 increase over this year's budget goal.

Baptist groups in Alaska,  the Dakotas, Iowa, Louisiana and Pennsylvania-South Jersey also managed to increase budgets by small amounts despite the economy.

But those conventions were few and far between among the 42 state and regional bodies made up of the 44,848 churches affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention.

The 3,200-church Alabama Baptist Convention passed a budget of $46 million for 2010, the same bottom line as in 2009, providing no salary increases for staff by avoiding any job reduction.

The Tennessee Baptist Convention adopted a reduced budget of $36 million for the 2009-2010 fiscal year. That is 7.7 percent less than the 2008-2009 budget of $39 million. Tennessee Baptists in 3,000 churches gave just under $35.5 million in the fiscal year ending Oct. 31.

Kentucky Baptists reduced their 2010-2011 Cooperative Program budget by 4 percent, to $23.5 million. The Kentucky Baptist Convention numbers 2,400 churches with 765,000 members.

The 2,300-church Florida Baptist Convention approved a 2010 Cooperative Program budget of $35.4 million, a less than 1 percent increase from a 2009 spending plan twice reduced from an original $39.2 million approved at the annual meeting last year.

The 2,000-church South Carolina Baptist Convention approved a budget of $32.1 million, a 6 percent reduction from a budget approved last year. Dennis Wilkins, chairman of the budget committee, said giving to the convention's unified budget was down about 6 percent through August. "We do not foresee any turnaround in the economy," Wilkins said, quoted in the Baptist Courier.

The 2,000-church Mississippi Baptist Convention approved a budget of $34.9 million, 2.4 percent less than the 2009 spending plan.

The Missouri Baptist Convention approved a $15 million budget, down 9 percent from the current year but in line with receipts from churches so far this year. The 1,900-church convention also implemented two options for giving, one that includes funds for ongoing legal action and another that does not. The state convention has reportedly spent $5 million in legal costs since 2001 attempting to regain control of five former convention agencies that moved to self-perpetuating boards of trustees.

The 1,700-church California Southern Baptist Convention reduced its budget by 4.8 percent approving a 2010 bottom line of $11.6 million.

The Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia, a convention of 500 churches formed in 1996, trimmed their 2010 budget by $300,000, to $9.2 million.

The 300-church Baptist Convention of New Mexico approved a budget of $4.7 million, $82,000 less than the current budget. The new budget includes no raises for convention employees.

The Colorado Baptist Convention, with 263 churches, approved a 2010 budget of $3.8 million, cutting spending 5 percent from the current year.

The Nevada Baptist Convention adopted a 2010 budget of $2.3 million, down 15.5 percent from the current budget. Receipts from 144 Nevada Southern Baptist churches were reported down by nearly 29 percent from last year.

Baptist organizations in Illinois, Kansas-Nebraska and Montana also passed budgets below the current year.

Despite expecting a shortfall of perhaps $800,000 or more in its current $13.8 million budget, the 1,300-church Baptist General Association of Virginia nevertheless adopted a 2010 budget of $14 million, an increase of 1.4 percent over the 2009 spending plan.

"Either we could do what we did last year and make the budget meet our projected income, and our budget this year would be substantially lower," Billy Burford, a member of the group's budget committee, told Virginia Baptist messengers meeting Nov. 17-18 in Fredericksburg. "Or we could meet the challenge. And that's what we did."

State conventions aren't alone in feeling the pain. They are the primary funding channel for the Southern Baptist Convention, which raises money through a unified budget that divides funds between state and national conventions. The state convention determines the formula for dividing funds contributed by local churches. While the standard is to divide funds evenly between the state convention and the SBC, the average percentage of funds that are forwarded to the national body is closer to 38 percent.

Last year Cooperative Program allocations through the SBC Executive Committee declined by more than 2 percent.  The International Mission Board said recently that reduced revenues could force the agency to shrink its current 5,600 missionary force by as many as 600.

–Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

GEORGETOWN—Loss of a loved one through death creates trauma, but emotions surrounding that loss can be particularly close to the surface during the holidays.

In preparation for this stressful time, First Baptist Church in Georgetown offered a “Surviving the Holidays” GriefShare meeting to help.

“Your grief is different; it’s individualistic,” Facilitator Sharon Kelley told participants. “Someone can understand your grief, but they can’t know where you are in your grief.”

Participants viewed a video with insights about why the holidays are tough times. It cautioned them not to avoid holiday pain, provided instructions on how to plan for the holiday season and offered the hope of healing through relationships—especially a relationship with God. The presentation also highlighted warning signs, such as thoughts of suicide.

“Anytime there is a pattern of suicidal thinking, talk to someone, because right now the only one you’re talking to is yourself, and you’re not giving very good advice,” participants heard.

To fend off such thoughts, face the fact that the holidays will be hard and will hurt; this will offset panic when the bad days arrive because they are expected.

Grieving people should not fake that everything is fine, participants learned. “Some Christians treat Christmas like Halloween. They put on a mask,” which robs the person of care and prayer of friends and family who believe everything is fine.

In planning for Christmas, prioritize what “you need for it to really be Christmas,” participants were instructed. Cut back on social engagements if desired, and also farm-out some jobs if the schedule becomes overwhelming.

Some may find a visit with family more tolerable when scheduled before or after the holiday rather than on the special day. That way, the grieving person does not feel the burden of performing for others on the holiday, participants were counseled.

Healing takes time. “It might not be a good holiday the first year. That’s OK,” participants learned.

The GriefShare ministry at First Baptist Church in Georgetown had its genesis more than a dozen years ago when JoAnn Goldston’s husband died. She looked around for support but found no biblically based help. She began her own group at the church calling it “Coming Alongside” that met twice a year.

A few years later, Church Initiative came out with the GriefShare program, and Goldston immediately was interested because the video format made it accessible for many to help in the ministry.

This year, 44 people participated in the three meetings. In addition to the meetings, participants also have daily devotionals to help them between meetings. When they meet, participants share how God has been working with them. Then they watch a video and discuss it in small groups.

More people from outside the church are beginning to join the group, Goldston said.

“There are four tasks we enable the members with,” she explained. One of them, and this is huge, is to acknowledge the person has indeed died and will not come back.”

Many people relate how they hear a door open and expect the person to come walking down the hall, or when they go on a trip sit down to write them a note.

“Another thing is to recognize the emotions they are having, learn some ways to deal with them and that they all go back to God. So many people, especially Christians, will deny anger. And anger is very much a part of it. There has been a great loss. There has been a great pain. There’s going to be anger,” Goldston explained. “We work with them on adjusting to different losses.”

For example, she said if someone’s child dies, that child might have been the one in the household who always set the table. Without their recognizing it, mealtime can become a time of great stress.

First Baptist Church in Georgetown offers a “Surviving the Holidays” GriefShare program.

“Spouses have to learn to deal with there is no one to sew a button on, no one to do the grocery shopping, no one to bring the garbage can in,” Goldston continued.

“And the last step is being able to move forward, to recognize they will have a new identity. They will not be the same person they were before the loss. Chances are very good they will be even better—that God will make them stronger and more compassionate and more sensitive and more of just anything you can think of. He just improves on the model.”

The holidays are a time of testing, Goldston admitted.

“For the holidays, expect that it’s going to hurt. It’s really going to hurt because there is so much emotion connected with holidays. And it’s not just Christmas and Thanksgiving—it’s birthdays, it’s anniversaries, and it’s the date of the loss,” she pointed out. “There are lots of dates that are different because of the emotions connected with them.”

But as the participant learned, God is there for solace.

“If you already have a relationship with God, the holidays are an opportunity to grow closer to him. Tell him what you are feeling,” said Paul David Tripp, a minister from Philadelphia.

“The person in pain and the person who is not presently in pain are exactly the same person—both are completely dependent on God for their life. One is just much more aware of the fact.”

Editor’s Note: For additional resources, visit http://www.mastersincounseling.org/loss-grief-bereavement.html

DALLAS—Tiny stuffed animals, flowers, photos and other mementos of all-too-brief lives filled a table at the front of Penland Chapel at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas.

Each fall, chaplains in Baylor’s pastoral care and counseling department lead a memorial service for the benefit of parents whose children died in infancy.

This year, Chaplain Millicent Albert invited parents and guests to reflect on the lives of their children, encouraging them to take comfort in the knowledge those lives had purpose and meaning.

During a time of sharing, chaplains invited parents to read letters, poems or reflections on about their babies. At the conclusion of the service, each parent was his invited to speak the name of his or her child.

Each parent was given a rose to symbolize the beauty and fragility of life, along with a small keepsake showing the image of an angel holding a baby and inscribed with Psalm 91:11—“For he shall give his angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways.”

“Throughout this very special service, you could sense the depth and breadth of the love that each parent had for their baby and how priceless it was to each parent for their precious baby to be remembered and honored in this very special way,” Albert said.

“Parents expressed a great deal of appreciation for the service, sharing that they left feeling encouraged, valued and supported, knowing that their babies will continue to be remembered and honored not only by them but by everyone who has been touched by their lives.”

PLAINVIEW—The events of Oct. 7, 2001, are blurry for Beau Bishop. He knows he was a passenger in a car that wrecked in Central Texas—an accident that left him with a broken neck, three skull fractures, a punctured lung and three broken vertebrae. He knows he “slept” through the worst of it.

Beyond that, the details are buried deep inside Bishop, who personally prefers to dwell not on his trauma from two years ago but on his recovery and bright future.

“One of my first conscious memories is being in a nursing home bed in a hallway,” said Bishop, now a senior at Wayland Baptist University. “I was in a coma for weeks and had to have a ventilator to breathe.”

One thing is clear. The wreck dramatically changed life as Bishop knew it. At age 25, he struggled to recover health and then rehabilitate, essentially relearning all the basic functions of self-sufficiency.

His stint in the skilled nursing facility in Lubbock—his first stop after being airlifted by helicopter to a hospital—lasted nine months.

Next, Bishop transferred to the Transitional Learning Center in Galveston for another six months, where he relearned basic skills from hygiene to meal preparation, along with other post-acute brain injury patients.

An assisted-living facility in San Antonio was the next stop as Bishop continued to hone his life skills and recover from the crash. It was a difficult, uphill battle, he recalls.

“I wouldn’t take it back now, but at the time, I didn’t want to do (all the rehab), of course,” he said.

Finally, Bishop ended up in Borger, where he worked in an oilfield machine shop and tried to return to some degree of normal life. Bishop had a nagging dream that survived the wreck: he wanted to go to school.

“I enrolled at Frank Phillips College in an elementary algebra class just to see if I could cut the mustard,” he smiled. “I worked my tail off, but I made an ‘A.’”

That good grade propelled Bishop to keep going in his studies, and he began to double his load. With each class, he collected more “A”s, encouraging Bishop that he really could pursue his degree. He eventually earned a scholarship to go fulltime to community college, finally earning his associate’s degree in 2007.

While in Borger, Bishop had heard about Wayland Baptist University and knew it was nearby. He also knew about the Christian environment and felt it would be a good fit. He enrolled in fall 2007, attending fulltime and working in the school library, and will finish his bachelor’s degree in psychology in December.

Bishop believes it was God’s will that he end up at Wayland. He’s found much encouragement from faculty and staff members, notably his psychology professors with whom he’s spent much of the last two years. He is also receiving assistance from the state’s Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services in financial support to reach his educational goals.

“Everything that has happened here has been awesome. Every professor I’ve dealt with here has been great. I’ve made the dean’s list every semester,” he adds with a smile. “Now I want to help other people have been through the same trials I faced.”

Bishop sees some sort of social work or counseling in his future, encouraged by counselors who assisted him during the rough journey of the past few years. But besides wanting to give back to others, one thing in particular has compelled Bishop to complete the degree and begin a rewarding career.

“I have a daughter who is 11 and lives in Levelland. I want to be able to contribute to her welfare as much as possible,” he said.

“It really hasn’t been a bed of roses (the past few years) but she has definitely been my driving force to live right and do the right things for the right reasons.”

Bishop said his faith has been his “backbone” during these difficult years of recovery and moving forward. He also said his stubborn, optimistic attitude played a role in keeping him focused.

“I go through trials all the time just like everyone, and there are times I don’t know what to do. But I know that the Creator will see me through,” he said. “I’m not a victim. I don’t choose to see myself that way. I’m a survivor.

“I know I still have to iron out the kinks, but all in all I’m getting better with each and every day. I never wanted to be content with just letting things be. I wanted to be as normal as possible.”

After years of therapy and regular exercise, Bishop bears only a few scars from the accident, slightly slowed speech and a very slight limp to his walk. But he paused thoughtfully while pondering how the events of the last eight years have changed him in less noticeable ways.

“It’s made me more aware of the small things in life,” he said with a peaceful smile. “And I realize that it’s important to tell people what they mean to me.”

Foster parents in Moldova recently received parenting training, thanks to Children’s Emergency Relief International, the overseas division of Baptist Child & Family Services.

Social workers and former foster parents, Mike and Diane Leach, long-term CERI supporters from Boston, traveled to Eastern Europe to provide training to 28 foster parents in two cities in Moldova.

The couple taught classes on the stages of grief and loss, understanding the differences between biological and foster children, how children develop healthy attachments and how spiritual gifts function in foster parenting.

“I believe the families left with an understanding that children are greatly influenced by their past, and were relieved to know that other families struggle with similar issues,” said CERI Moldova National Director Connie Belciug.

The course was so well received, families requested more tips and lessons to help them provide good homes for their foster children. In response, CERI is planning future seminars to discuss topics such as relationships between males and females, encouraging godly habits and breaking cycles of destructive behavior.

 “We have a great appreciation and respect for the work CERI is doing in Moldova and are honored to be allowed to help. We will return as often as possible,” Leach said.

WACO—Federal, state and local leaders in the fight against hunger gathered for a hunger summit at Baylor University to begin a discussion they hope will spark actions to end food insecurity in Texas by 2015.

By bringing together about 250 government officials, clergy and lay leaders, organizers hoped to break down “silos” in the battle against hunger. If individuals on different levels can cooperate with each other, every Texan can have enough to eat in five years, said Jeremy Everett, one of the event’s coordinators and director of the Texas Hunger Initiative, a partnership between the Baylor School of Social Work and the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission.

“Basically, what we’ve noticed over the course of time at the Texas Hunger Initiative is that these federal groups, the state groups and often these community-based groups work as silos and they don’t work together,” he said. “It’s our belief that if we’re going to work toward food security in Texas—that we define as three healthy meals a day, seven days a week—we’re going to have to all do it together.”

To bring people together beyond the event at Baylor University, the Texas Hunger Initiative is looking to launch two initiatives statewide.

First, organizers are looking to create a food policy roundtable of state and federal leaders to assess what resources are available and coordinate efforts to make those resources available locally. The first roundtable meeting is scheduled Jan. 20 in Austin.

The second initiative is an effort to create food-planning associations in each of the state’s 254 counties. These hunger coalitions will bring together pastors, lay leaders, mayors and government officials to plan ways to provide people in need better access to healthy meals.

The Texas Hunger Initiative is part of Texas Hope 2010, a Texas Baptist initiative to pray for vulnerable and spiritually lost people, care for Texans in need and share the gospel with every person in the state by Easter 2010.

The Texas Hunger Initiative recently was selected to receive six $10,000 Texas Hope care grants through the Texas Baptist Offering for World Hunger. The grants will be used to help start and expand summer feeding programs in at least six cities, the first priority of the hunger initiative.

Texas has the highest percentage of hungry children in the nation at 22 percent. About 2.5 million children are on the free lunch program in Texas schools. Of those students, 2 million are not enrolled in summer feeding programs.

Max Finberg, director of faith-based and neighborhood partnership for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said Texas has much to be proud of, but not these statistics.

“One of the things you can’t be proud of is that you’re the second-hungriest state in the nation,” he said.

The recent economic swoon is exacerbating the problem, said Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples.

“No American wants to be hungry,” he said. “No American seeks to be hungry. And no American needs to be hungry.”

Texans would do something about the issue if they had a personal connection to the problem and a clear plan to follow, said Camille Miller, president of Texas Health Institute.

“We’ve got to be committed,” she said. “We’ve got to stay with this.”

Leaders said that food insecurity could drop dramatically across the state if people would take advantage of the available federal resources. Harris County residents alone leave $203 million on the table that could be used to provide food for their families simply because they do not sign up. In Bexar County, which includes San Antonio, residents do not use $47.1 million for which they are eligible.

“We have untapped resources that can have an immediate impact,” Staples said.

Summit leaders repeatedly voiced optimism that hunger could be significantly decreased. They noted political leaders at all levels seem intent on attacking the issue. Churches are stepping up to the challenge, as well.

Suzii Paynter, director of the Christian Life Commission, said God appears to be moving in the lives of people in such a way where a dramatic effort can take place to aid people in need.

Paynter described this point in history as being like the second time Jesus laid hands on the blind man in Mark 8. Upon the first touch, the man said he saw people, but they were unclear. Jesus touched the man’s eyes again, clearing his vision completely.

“We’ve heard about hunger,” she said. “We’ve read about it in Scripture. Now, we’re being touched a second time and can do something about it as a sign of the kingdom of God. If the church steps up and starts feeding hungry children, it will be a sign of God’s work.”

Christ’s command to his followers to feed the hungry applies to each of them, Paynter said. All of them have a role to play in fighting hunger. A free handbook on how to start a summer feeding program is available from the website of Texas Impact, an interfaith non-profit group based in Austin. That site is www.texasimpact.org.

“What church doesn’t have a kitchen?” she said. “What church can’t make sandwiches? It’s a universal call.”

For more information on summer feeding programs, call the Christian Life Commission at (888) 244-9400.

WACO—Baylor University’s Faculty Senate has weighed in on the turbulent relationship between the Baylor Alumni Association and the university’s administration and board of regents.

At their mid-November meeting, members of the Baylor Faculty Senate approved two statements—one noting “deep concern” about the conflict and the other congratulating the alumni association on its 150th anniversary.

“The conflict between the Baylor board of regents and administration, on the one hand, and the Baylor Alumni Association , on the other, has been a source of deep concern to the Baylor Faculty Senate and the Baylor community as a whole,” the first statement said.

“Disagreements about university polices are to be expected in an academic community committed to free and open debate. Baylor’s leaders and the members of the Baylor Alumni Association need to embrace the policy of cooperation and coordination that characterized the relationship for virtually all of the last 150 years. The Faculty Senate stands ready to assist in any way it can to foster a spirit of Christian reconciliation and forgiveness.”

The other statement congratulated the Baylor Alumni Association for “150 years of faithful service to the students, faculty, administrators, graduates and friends” of Baylor.

“Without the loyal support of its alumni and their Association, Baylor might not have weathered the many challenges it has faced over the last century and a half,” the Faculty Senate statement said. “That it has survived and prospered, steadily enhancing its national and international reputation is due in no small part to their efforts, and we offer our thanks on behalf of the Baylor faculty.”

In turn, Jeff Kilgore, executive vice president and CEO of the Baylor Alumni Association, expressed thanks for the words of affirmation and to the Baylor faculty.

“They are essential to everything that is good about Baylor University,” Kilgore said. “What we have in our faculty is what makes everything right about our alma mater, and that just isn’t appreciated enough.”

Baylor administration was in the process of preparing for Thanksgiving break and could not offer a detailed response.  However, John Barry, vice president for marketing and communication, said, "We read with interest anything that comes from our Faculty Senate."

HOUSTON—George W. Truett’s experience preaching to troops in Europe during World War I not only shaped his views about militarism, but also contributed to his growing conviction that only Christ’s church—not any government—offered hope for lasting peace, church historian Kelly Pigott said.

Pigott, university chaplain and assistant professor of theology at Hardin-Simmons University, presented a paper on “George W. Truett: Hawk or Dove?” at the annual meeting of the Texas Baptist Historical Society in Houston.

Truett, Baptist statesman and longtime pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, voiced strong support for the war effort when the United States entered what President Woodrow Wilson touted as a struggle to make the world “safe for democracy,” Pigott noted.

George W. Truett

“He praised the young men in his congregation who served in the military. He pitched Liberty Bonds. He led the church to provide special ministries to the servicemen and women in town. He even introduced a resolution at the Baptist General Convention of Texas meeting in 1917 that called for the convention to fully support the war,” he said.

“And finally, when President Wilson selected Truett along with about 20 other prominent pastors to preach to the troops through the offices of the YMCA, Truett accepted the call.”

Initially, Truett characterized the war with Germany as a “battle between paganism and the highest civilization,” Pigott noted.

“But Truett’s public confidence and cheering for the war belied an inner angst he felt as he hoped for a quick end to the violence and a new world ruled by rational and moral men who would bring to fruition Wilson’s prophecy that this would be a war to end all wars, inaugurating an age safe for democracy,” he said.

Truett’s support for the war rested less in belief about just war theory and more in his faith “in the institution of governments to create a just world where warfare no longer existed,” Pigott observed.

Truett’s presidential appointment to preach six months to the Allied Forces in Europe gave him the opportunity to witness the destruction of war and visit wounded soldiers. He narrowly escaped death himself when he missed boarding a ship, and a U-boat torpedo subsequently sunk that vessel, killing all its passengers.

And the tour of duty changed him, Pigott noted. A close-up look at the horrors of war strengthened Truett’s commitment to doing everything possible to create non-military solutions to international disputes. And the failure of the United States to embrace Wilson’s vision of a League of Nations left him disillusioned with government—as reflected in his famed 1920 religious liberty speech in Washington, D.C.

“Beyond just an opportunity to trump a long cherished Baptist principle, perhaps Truett’s proclamation on the steps of the Capitol was the beginning of a journey of increased suspicion about government,” Pigott suggested.

“In this address, he still clearly saw autocracy and democracy at odds. But now he couched it in religious terms, contrasting Catholic and Baptist polity. And he described the church—not the United States—as a ‘pure democracy.’ He issued a stern warning about what might happen to that purity if the church ever got too cozy with the government.”

Truett apparently retained his postmillennial eschatology, Pigott noted, but without its optimistic assessment of human institutions. He grew increasingly committed to the position that the church and Christian educational institutions—not secular government—would be the only instruments capable of creating a golden age of lasting peace prior to Christ’s return. Christ’s church was “the best hope for humanity,” he concluded.

“At the twilight of his life, Truett was weary of the promises of politics but confident in an institution that he believed even the gates of hell could not prevail against,” Pigott said.

At the Texas Baptist Historical Society meeting, members elected officers for 2009-2010: president, Butch Strickland of Independence; vice president, Don Wilkey of Onalaska; and secretary treasurer, Alan Lefever of Dallas. Mark Bumpus of San Angelo and Kyle Henderson of Athens were named to the organization’s executive committee.

The society presented a church history writing award to Jeff Huckeby of Gatesville for 125 Years Down by the Creek: 1882-2007 Pecan Grove Baptist Church, and to Keith Mack and Herb Weaver for 100 Years of Royal Ambassadors. Two writers of unpublished manuscripts also were honored—Ron Ellison for “Transplanted Tennessean Adoniram Judson Hill’s Only Texas Pastorate, 1879-1884” and Mary Moore for “From a Missionary’s Heart: The Writings of Anne Luther Bagby.”

WACO—Federal, state and local leaders in the fight against hunger gathered for a hunger summit at Baylor University to begin a discussion they hope will spark actions to end food insecurity in Texas by 2015.

By bringing together about 250 government officials, clergy and lay leaders, organizers hoped to break down “silos” in the battle against hunger. If individuals on different levels can cooperate with each other, every Texan can have enough to eat in five years, said Jeremy Everett, one of the event’s coordinators and director of the Texas Hunger Initiative, a partnership between the Baylor School of Social Work and the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission.

“Basically, what we’ve noticed over the course of time at the Texas Hunger Initiative is that these federal groups, the state groups and often these community-based groups work as silos and they don’t work together,” he said. “It’s our belief that if we’re going to work toward food security in Texas—that we define as three healthy meals a day, seven days a week—we’re going to have to all do it together.”

To bring people together beyond the event at Baylor University, the Texas Hunger Initiative is looking to launch two initiatives statewide.

First, organizers are looking to create a food policy roundtable of state and federal leaders to assess what resources are available and coordinate efforts to make those resources available locally. The first roundtable meeting is scheduled Jan. 20 in Austin.

The second initiative is an effort to create food-planning associations in each of the state’s 254 counties. These hunger coalitions will bring together pastors, lay leaders, mayors and government officials to plan ways to provide people in need better access to healthy meals.

The Texas Hunger Initiative is part of Texas Hope 2010, a Texas Baptist initiative to pray for vulnerable and spiritually lost people, care for Texans in need and share the gospel with every person in the state by Easter 2010.

The Texas Hunger Initiative recently was selected to receive six $10,000 Texas Hope care grants through the Texas Baptist Offering for World Hunger. The grants will be used to help start and expand summer feeding programs in at least six cities, the first priority of the hunger initiative.

Texas has the highest percentage of hungry children in the nation at 22 percent. About 2.5 million children are on the free lunch program in Texas schools. Of those students, 2 million are not enrolled in summer feeding programs.

Max Finberg, director of faith-based and neighborhood partnership for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said Texas has much to be proud of, but not these statistics.

“One of the things you can’t be proud of is that you’re the second-hungriest state in the nation,” he said.

The recent economic swoon is exacerbating the problem, said Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples.

“No American wants to be hungry,” he said. “No American seeks to be hungry. And no American needs to be hungry.”

Texans would do something about the issue if they had a personal connection to the problem and a clear plan to follow, said Camille Miller, president of Texas Health Institute.

“We’ve got to be committed,” she said. “We’ve got to stay with this.”

Leaders said that food insecurity could drop dramatically across the state if people would take advantage of the available federal resources. Harris County residents alone leave $203 million on the table that could be used to provide food for their families simply because they do not sign up. In Bexar County, which includes San Antonio, residents do not use $47.1 million for which they are eligible.

“We have untapped resources that can have an immediate impact,” Staples said.

Summit leaders repeatedly voiced optimism that hunger could be significantly decreased. They noted political leaders at all levels seem intent on attacking the issue. Churches are stepping up to the challenge, as well.

Suzii Paynter, director of the Christian Life Commission, said God appears to be moving in the lives of people in such a way where a dramatic effort can take place to aid people in need.

Paynter described this point in history as being like the second time Jesus laid hands on the blind man in Mark 8. Upon the first touch, the man said he saw people, but they were unclear. Jesus touched the man’s eyes again, clearing his vision completely.

“We’ve heard about hunger,” she said. “We’ve read about it in Scripture. Now, we’re being touched a second time and can do something about it as a sign of the kingdom of God. If the church steps up and starts feeding hungry children, it will be a sign of God’s work.”

Christ’s command to his followers to feed the hungry applies to each of them, Paynter said. All of them have a role to play in fighting hunger. A free handbook on how to start a summer feeding program is available from the website of Texas Impact, an interfaith non-profit group based in Austin (www.texasimpact.org).

“What church doesn’t have a kitchen?” she said. “What church can’t make sandwiches? It’s a universal call.”

For more information on summer feeding programs, call the Christian Life Commission at (888) 244-9400.