DALLAS—Some things have changed a bit since 1949 at Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas. Then, the church met in a house. Today, its 9,000 members fill a mammoth sancutary in multiple worship services.

One thing hasn’t changed. Martha Howard still can be found teaching her room full of kindergartners—just as she has for 60 years.

The church called her husband, Herbert, as pastor in 1948. Their first year at the church, she taught a Sunday school class for college girls.

The next year, however, there was no one to teach the kindergarten class. Since her oldest daughter was one of the students, she took over.

At age 90, Martha Howard still teaches a kindergarten Sunday school class at Park Cities Baptist Church—as she has for 60 years. (PHOTO/George Henson)

“I was totally hooked,” Howard said.

Her classroom was the garage of the house that served as the church’s only building. There was an oil stain in the middle of garage where a car once parked.

“We just pulled a table over it and put chairs around that, and that was my class,” she recalled.

While it may have been a humble beginning, it has been a rich journey, said Howard, who celebrated her 90th birthday earlier this year.

“I now have taught 60 years the same age group, and they are my love. It’s certainly a thrill to see them grow up and become fine citizens. My graduates are all the way from California to Georgia, and they come back, and I get to see them, and I learn of the wonderful things they are doing.

“It’s so rewarding. I go back to that Scripture where Jesus said, ‘Let all the children come to me, for such is the kingdom of heaven.’ And truly it is the kingdom of heaven when you see them grown men of God and grown women of God with wonderful homes and wonderful careers, practicing Christians and teaching themselves,” she said.

She recalled 25 years ago being invited to attend the ordination of one of her former students, Bill Chamblee, at First Baptist Church in Denton. She recently returned as the church and city of Denton honored him for 25 years of service to youth there.

Howard doesn’t use a current curriculum. Rather, she uses lessons published in the 1950s and 1960s as the basis for her team of teachers because she wants to make sure the children she teaches have a firm foundation.

“My joy through all the years has been that to some boy, some girl, I have taught the lesson and that they know God loves them. We start out with these children teaching them the song ‘Jesus Loves Me’ and (the Bible verse) ‘God is love.’ If they can learn that, we go on from there,” Howard said.

This year, Howard and her team have about 40 students—all learning important truths they can carry with them for a lifetime.

“My children have only been in there since September, and they can already say the Lord’s Prayer, and they can tell me where it is,” she revealed.

“Their responses are so remarkable. They like to tell me things about ‘my grandmother and how she read to me about Jesus’ and ‘this is my Bible’ and then they want to show it to you,” she said.

“And can there be any greater joy than sharing that with a child? No! Never. They’re so endearing, and they are so responsive. I think that is one reason I love it so much.”

Howard is quick to say, however, that she is not alone in molding these children’s minds and hearts. Many of the other teachers who join with her on Sunday mornings also have more than a decade of service—some closer to 20 years. The newest teacher is one of Howard’s graduates who now has college-aged children of her own.

The team makes sure their lesson plans always are in place at least three months in advance, complete with the lesson aim, the focus Bible story and Scripture, and the songs to be sung.

“I have wonderful teachers, and we do it together,” she said. “We are a team. We are a teacher group, and we work together for one cause. We all love the children.”

She maintains it is the children who make it all work, however.

“This is the age group when I feel like they are like little sponges. Everything I teach this age group, they can remember. They can’t read, and that’s a challege, but they want to learn.

“They are old enough by now to know how to behave in Sunday school. They know why we go to Sunday school. They know why we want to be there,” Howard said.

“I teach a tremendous repertoire of Bible stories, and then I test them in preparation for the first grade. ‘Now, is this lesson today from the New Testament or the Old Testament?’ They can tell me. It has become my life to watch their development.”

One thing that helps her watch her students’ development is that so many come back to see her each week—even teenagers now in the youth department.

“Another thing I do that most people don’t anymore is I have a pianist. And we sing and we sing and we sing. And the songs are not just whatever anybody can think of—they are planned to carry out the lesson plan.

“There is one time when we can sing ‘your favorite song,’ but we sing all the songs every child should know. Everything from ‘Jesus Loves Me’ to ‘O, How I Love Jesus,’ ‘Happy Sunday Morning’ and on and on.

“And the little quiet child who is very hesitant at first will sing. He or she learns because all my songs are from Scripture. They’re not just some song,” Howard explained.

“I’m old-timey. I’m old. I have old methods, but it gives me great joy to share it.”

Tommy Sanders, who leads the graduate program for children’s ministry at Dallas Baptist University and worked with Howard almost five years while he was children’s minister at Park Cities, considers himself her fan.

“It’s amazing,” he said. “People come back to make sure their grandchildren are in her class. She’s there every week 30 to 45 minutes early, and her classroom is ready to go when that first child comes into the classroom. She’s the real deal when it comes to preparation and commitment.”

Some wonder why a nonagenarian still is hanging out with 5-year-olds, but Howard is very content to still be in kindergarten.

“A friend, a loving, caring friend, not long ago said: ‘You’re 90. Why don’t you just quit and come over here to the big class?’ And I said, ‘No, I’ll wait until they tell me I’m too old.’

“I don’t expect any commendations, attention or laurels,” she said. “It just happened to be my mission. All joys have been mine in serving children.”

HOUSTON—Texas is home to 24 million people—and some troubling statistics about them. But despite the challenges the state faces, Texas Baptists hold the key to meeting many of the dramatic needs, David Lowrie said in his presidential address to the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

“As I think about our Texas Baptist family, it’s my conviction that Jesus wants us to see Texas through his eyes and see what he sees when he looks into the hearts and minds of people,” said Lowrie, pastor of First Baptist Church in Canyon.

Lowrie noted the word “compassion” occurs repeatedly in Scripture that records Jesus’ life and ministry. Specifically, Lowrie quoted Matthew 9:36: “When Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”

Statistics demonstrate the urgency for Texas Baptists to act, he observed. One in six Texans lives in poverty; one child in 10 goes to bed hungry each night; and one in three is at risk of hunger because there is not enough food to go around at home.

Educational statistics are equally disturbing, he noted. Only 65 percent of Texas boys and girls graduate from high school, dropping to 56 percent for Hispanic children and 53 percent for African-American children.

The challenge may spark hopelessness—a sense the problems are too big to tackle, Lowrie said. But Texas Baptists have the tools they need if they rely on prayer and trust God to help them work with the kind of compassion the Savior demonstrated. Although the harvest is plentiful—nearly half of all Texans claim no church involvement—there is a solution, he asserted.

“The word ‘compassion’ means to have a feeling deep down in your gut, something that would cause you to cry and hurt and feel,” Lowrie said. “Jesus was moved by the people, but he did not use the word ‘hopeless.’ There is always hope. The hope of Texas is Jesus.”

Lowrie encouraged Texas Baptists to ask for God’s help in meeting the needs of the state, knowing that God may be calling them to do the work as well. The challenges may be too big for anyone individually, but as a collective body, there is power.

“The challenge will not simply be solved by getting on our knees but by getting off our knees and on our feet and getting to work,” Lowrie said. “If you’re waiting for someone else to step up, stop waiting. God has called us all to work together with him.”

BUENA PARK, Calif. (ABP) — A former Southern Baptist Convention officer who made headlines in June when he said on national radio that he was praying for Barack Obama to die now says he wants to see the president live long enough to stand trial for treason.

Wiley Drake, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park, Calif., issued a press release Nov. 19 calling for end to "imprecatory prayer" — words of judgment from the Book of Psalms prayed back to God, directed toward Obama.

Drake said he is now "calling for all of God's people and prayer warriors to cease the imprecatory prayer, and pray for Mr. Obama's protection until he can be properly tried for treason."

Drake attributed his change of heart to "spiritual counsel" of James David Manning, pastor at ATLAH World Missionary Church in New York, contained in a 16 1/2-minute video recorded Nov. 18. 

"I have asked men everywhere please do you no harm," Manning said in remarks he addressed to "Barack Hussein the long-legged mack daddy Obama." According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, "mack daddy" is slang for a slick womanizer or conspicuously successful pimp. 

"I do not want to see anyone attempt, dream about, think about or ever discuss assassinating you," Manning continued. "It is most important to you and to my savior Jesus that you live, and that you live a long life, but that you live that we might be able to bring you to trial. You see if someone does you harm, and you are not able to be brought to trial, then we lose the opportunity of proving our statements that you are not the president of the United States of America. You are not. You are an illegal alien, a usurper."

Manning preached a series of harsh sermons last year against then-candidate Obama that prompted Americans United for the Separation of Church and State to ask the IRS to investigate him for violating rules governing tax-exempt charities against electioneering. He says he was visited by officials from the Department of Homeland Security after a recent video message in which he advised people who strongly oppose Obama to "be ready to die."

Drake, who was second vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention in 2006-2007, said he was also questioned in his home by the Secret Service after he said in a Fox News Radio interview June 2 with Alan Colmes that he was praying for Obama to die.

Leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention criticized Drake's comment and said that most Southern Baptists believe it is their duty to pray for the well-being of government leaders. In June the SBC passed a resolution praising the election of America's first African-American president while criticizing a number of Obama's policies.

Drake, a third-party candidate for vice president from the American Independent Party on the California ballot in the 2008 presidential election, recently lost a round in an ongoing legal battle challenging the legitimacy of Obama's presidency.

U.S. District Judge David Carter dismissed a lawsuit filed by Drake and other plaintiffs Oct. 29, saying the Constitution does not give federal courts, but only Congress, the authority to remove a sitting president.

Drake said his attorney, Gary Kreep of the United States Justice Foundation, filed an appeal in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Nov. 16.

–Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

HOUSTON—As 10 men and women dressed in brightly colored robes performed a traditional Korean dance to rhythmic drumbeats, more than 500 people participated in an international festival at Houston’s Lansdale Park sponsored by 19 Baptist churches representing the Cambodian, Chinese, Filipino, Korean, Laotian, Malaysian and Vietnamese population in the area.

The day was a celebration of Asian culture and a chance for the international churches to minister to their own people. They sought to show God’s love for all people and cultures and to build relationships, preparing for more ministry opportunities in the future.

“We are excited that we can come together and work for one cause and that is to share the gospel, to make known the claims of Christ here in Houston,” said Ernest Dagohoy, pastor of First Phillipine Baptist Church in Houston. “It’s just amazing that when we work together that we can do more things together. And the seeds that we plant will come out of this to reach the city of Houston.”

The festival was part of City Reach, a series of more than 20 evangelistic events in the greater Houston area designed to share the gospel with the hurting and hopeless before the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting Nov. 16-17. More than 1,900 people made professions of faith through City Reach efforts. At least 25 people began relationships with Christ during the festival.

“Thirty percent of Houstonians were born outside of the United States,” said Scott Willingham, Texas Baptists’ director of church evangelism and project leader for City Reach Houston.

“These churches are reaching the lost in their community as they came together for the first time to work cooperatively as internationals.”

At an international festival held as part of City Reach, a child attempts to break open a piñata filled with candy.

The event included ethnic food tasting, cultural activities like Chinese calligraphy, artistic displays through colorful native dress and traditional music and dancing by several church groups.

Star Family Ministries offered children’s activities, complete with music and puppet shows, hula-hoop contests, face painting and caricatures by a local artist.

Each person who attended the festival was asked to complete a registration card requesting contact information and ethnicity. The cards were sorted, and the prospects were given to the appropriate international church for follow-up efforts.

Each participant was entered into a drawing for prizes such as a volleyball, bicycle, calculator, vacuum cleaner and a grand prize of a 32-inch flat-screen television.

“We came together because the Bible included all the diversity of different races,” said Ricky Leung, pastor of Chinese Baptist Church in Houston and an organizer for the event.

“I think it is a blessing to come together and serve and show the power of the gospel. It is one body and one people of God. It’s a blessing to be one body.”

The group of churches began planning more than four months ago, asking Willingham and Jason Kym, the coordinator for multi-ethnic people at the Southern Baptist Convention North American Mission Board, to help arrange the endeavor.

“There are many ways to share the gospel with the lost world,” Kym said. “The reason we have international festivals here together (with people) coming from many different ethnic groups is to let other people know who we are and where we come from, rather than just seeing people as different from you and me.”

The effort also was a part of Texas Hope 2010, an effort by Texas Baptists to share the hope of Christ with every Texan by Easter 2010 in ways where each can respond in his or her own way or language.

As one part of the emphasis, Texas Baptists are attempting to place Scripture in all 8.8 million homes in Texas. Volunteers distributed more than 500 multimedia CDs containing the Gospel of John and a downloadable New Testament in more than 300 languages.

“We are just trying to share the gospel through expressing the cultural backgrounds of these churches, presenting the gospel through the Texas Hope CDs and other gospel tracts that are in the appropriate languages and expressing the love of Jesus Christ in this neighborhood,” Willingham said.

HOUSTON—More than 300 Hispanic Texas Baptists prayed, worshipped and enjoyed fellowship in their heart language of Spanish, celebrating what God has done in and through them during the past year.

The Hispanic Baptist Fellowship met the night before the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting to rejoice in what God is doing in Hispanic churches through Texas Hope 2010 and to rally the group to continue their efforts in reaching the lost through praying, caring and sharing.

Texas Hope 2010 is an effort by Texas Baptists to share the hope of Christ with every Texan by Easter 2010 so each person can respond to the gospel in his or her own culture and language. The meeting also was about looking beyond Easter 2010 to find ways to disciple the new believers.

“We are offering a challenge to Hispanic churches in Texas, especially in the Houston area, to start a focus on follow-up for Texas Hope 2010,” said Rolando Rodriguez, director of Texas Baptists’ Hispanic ministries.

To promote the three aspects of Texas Hope 2010, Rodriguez spoke on prayer, Martin Ortega, pastor of Emanuel Baptist Church in Midland, preached on caring and Victor Rodriguez, pastor of South San Filadelfia Baptist Church in San Antonio and president of the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas, delivered a message about sharing.

The key to making a difference through prayer comes from 2 Chronicles 7:14, Rodriguez said. If God’s people will humble themselves, pray and seek his face, then God will make a difference in their lives and in Texas, he said.

“We need to pray that our eyes will be opened so we can do the works of God,” Rodriguez said. “What difference are you making because you pray?”

When speaking on care, Ortega noted Mark 1:21-45, insisting Hispanic Baptists must have a complete commitment to proclaiming and living out the mission of Christ—going to the poor, blind and oppressed.

With Jesus, the commitment to caring includes liberation, treatment of the whole person and restoration of life, Ortega said.

Participants in a Hispanic Baptist Fellowship gathering prior to the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting in Houston join in worship. (PHOTOS/Kaitlin Chapman/Texas Baptist Communications)

Rodriguez spoke about the Texas Hope 2010 compact discs that contain the Gospel of John in English and Spanish, as well as an option to download the New Testament in more than 300 languages.

Attendees were en-couraged to purchase 10 CDs each at the end of the meeting to distribute in their cities and to spread the Scripture in a way that others can understand and use it.

The group has held the fellowship meeting the night before the start of Texas Baptists’ annual meeting for the last few years as a way to include the group in the big picture of Texas Baptists’ mission and ministry efforts, Rodriguez said.   

“We wanted to make sure we have a celebration along with BGCT annual meeting to send a message that we are the BGCT,” Lopez said. “We are not just a part, but we are the BGCT.”

The meeting also focused on promoting the centennial celebration of Convencion, the Hispanic Baptist Convention’s annual meeting that will take place in June 2010. BGCT Executive Director Randel Everett told the rally he is looking ahead to next year’s BGCT annual meeting in McAllen as part of the centennial celebration.

“I believe that it is important that we are having annual meeting in McAllen during the centennial year for Convencion,” he said. “I believe that God will pour out his Spirit on this and that great things will happen in the Valley.”

HOUSTON—What would happen if 1 million Texas Baptists did one act of kindness a day? That would result in 7 million acts of kindness in a week, 60 million acts in two months and 365 millions acts of kindness in a year.

If this were to happen, other Texans likely would take notice, and great things would occur, said Joel Gregory, who led a workshop on the Texas Hope “care” emphasis during the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting.

Gregory focused on a text from Matthew 25 in his presentation, encouraging Texas Baptists to serve the “incognito Christ.”

He noted Jesus placed significant emphasis on serving people in need, mentioning it four times.

“To serve Jesus is to serve him through caring for others,” said Gregory, a professor of preaching at Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary.

Jesus specifically singled out several categories of vulnerable people—the hungry, the thirsty, people in need of clothes, strangers, the sick and prisoners.

“If life has any moral quality at all,“ said Gregory, “there is going to be a discrimination based on this simple list of what do we do with the incognito Jesus—on the basis of these six categories it shows whether we have a relationship with Jesus or not.”

Gregory shared a personal experience as a student at Baylor University when he reached out to a hurting family in the community. The family lived in a home without any furniture and was struggling to feed their eight children.

“I never felt closer to Jesus than when I was sitting in that house on South 5th Street, talking about Jesus and helping that family,” he recalled.

Caring for others involves many small tasks that often are overlooked. Gregory suggested God will focus on exactly those acts when reviewing the lives of people at the final judgment. Regarding “the things we do not remember doing,” he said, Jesus will respond to those standing before his throne, “That was me—the incognito Christ.”

HOUSTON—Diverse leadership styles exist in Texas Baptist churches—and each offers its strengths and its challenges, pastors and other church leaders learned from panelists at the G-5 leadership conference, held in conjunction with the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting.

The panel featured George Mason, pastor of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas; David Dykes, pastor of Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler; and Chris Seay, pastor of Ecclesia in Houston.

Mason sees leadership as a partnership between a pastor’s strengths and those who have strengths to complement them. A leader must be willing to let other people help—paricularly in areas where the leader is weak, he said.

“The fact of the matter is, who you are determines how you will best lead the church,” Mason said. “You will lead best out of your strengths. If you find people who complement you, then let those people do that job, and it will go well.”

Dykes noted his leadership style is based on helping his congregation see they all are ministers—whether volunteer, vocational or bivocational. Dykes strives to lead in a way that his congregation understands this and serves accordingly.

“I am committed to enlisting and developing leaders in our congregation,” Dykes said. “I see that as more of my role than being a leader—developing the greatest staff team and then others.”

Because of that, he doesn’t allow the term “layman” to be used in his church.

“We have removed this clergy/layman distinction, and we talk about servants and ministers,” Dykes said. “We have some who are vocational ministers, and others are bivocational or volunteer ministers. That is the philosophy that guides our church.”

Seay agreed with Dykes, saying pastors have been lifted to a level of leadership that is unhealthy at times.

“We have been professionalized and elevated to a point where it doesn’t serve us or our people well,” Seay said.

To help people step into places of using their gifts and talents to serve God and the body of Christ, Seay said pastors must be willing to call people into tension—to address cultural aspects that may be uncomfortable but help the people of God see it is possible to change, becoming more kingdom-minded people.

“I think part of what a pastor is called to do is much like the prophets,” Seay said. “What the prophets do is paint a picture of what life is, but also to paint a picture of what life could be. … It is a unique pastoral role to call people into that tension, and it is that tension that calls people to change.”

Alhough they are guiding others, pastors and leaders don’t have to know all the answers before they lead, Mason said. Any leader who keeps all duties to himself or herself is robbing the body of Christ of opportunities to serve and use their gifts and talents for the Lord, he said.

“If someone joins our church, then there must be a need here that God wants that person to fill,” Mason said.

Some people do not understand the difference between management and leadership, Dykes noted. Leadership involves casting a vision and helping others take part in that.

“When you are leading, you can’t really manage. And when you manage, you can’t really lead,” he said.

All three pastors stressed the importance of developing the next generation of leaders. Mason, whose church has created a pastoral mentoring and internship program, said the church must decide its purpose before it can develop new leaders.

“I really do think that churches have to decide whether they are merely going to be like a hospital that is just a service provider or be like a teaching hospital, constantly working to be training the next generation of leaders to do that work,” he said.

Leadership training is not just about fostering growth in people to carry out God’s plan now, but also to carry it out in the future, he said.

“We need to adopt an understanding that the church is multigenerational, because we have to think about what happens to the church when we are gone,” Mason said. “This is our special work and the question is who will come after us. “

Mason suggested that pastors notice young people with potential, name and make known what is seen in them and nurture those characteristics, talents and gifts.

Listening to the next generation is the key to building them into strong leaders as well as fostering personal growth in the leader in the process, Seay said.

“If we are going to build into young people, we must listen to them,” he said. “They understand the difference between the gospel and personal preference. They are going to have some radical ideas, but I think we can learn from them in ways that we will be astonished.”

HOUSTON—Baptists differ over the merits of Calvinism and its resurgence, but two scholars advancing disparate positions on John Calvin’s theology agreed it could have positive benefits if examining it leads Baptists to embrace a more biblical worldview—whether or not it lines up with the teachings codified by the Synod of Dort.

Timothy George, dean of Beeson Divinity School at Samford University, and David Naugle, professor and chair of the philosophy department at Dallas Baptist University, addressed the inaugural G-5 Conference, held in conjunction with the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting.

Jim Denison, president of the Center for Informed Faith, moderated the discussion, part of an event geared toward the fifth generation of Texas Baptist church leaders.

George, who identifies with Reformed theology, pointed to positive ways Calvinism has influenced Baptist identity, characterizing it as a theological system that takes the Bible seriously.

But George also noted dangers in Calvinism—a susceptibility to extremes, the propensity toward “us versus them” sectarianism and a tendency toward theocracy in society rather than religious liberty.

Naugle, who does not subscribe to all the tenets of Calvinism, briefly outlined common critiques of Reformed theology, such as its “lopsided” emphasis on God’s sovereignty at the expense of his goodness and its failure to adequately reconcile unconditional election with Scriptures that points to a more open invitation to respond to God.

But Naugle also described the “comprehensive worldview that touches every sphere of faith, life and culture” as “Calvinism’s gift to the church.”

That robust and holistic way of looking at the world through eyes of faith particularly appeals to young evangelicals whose background in theology has been shallow and segmented, he noted, characterizing some of his students as having “lots of stars but no constellations.”

For some, Calvinism provides a structure that brings together a scattershot understanding of theology into a cohesive biblical narrative of creation, fall and redemption, he observed.

HOUSTON—Offering a series of “What if?” questions with obviously affirmative answers, Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Director Randel Everett challenged Texas Baptists to make sure the doctrines they believe make a radical impact on their lives—and the lives of their neighbors.

“What if the Bible really is the word of God?” Everett asked during his report to the BGCT annual meeting in Texas. Assuming a positive response to the question, he used that belief as a springboard for developing his challenge to Texas Baptists to embrace the vision of Texas Hope 2010.

Texas Hope 2010 is an initiative of Texas Baptists to share the hope of Christ with every Texan by Easter Sunday, 2010. 

Stating his firm belief that Scripture is God-breathed and standing as authority over all of creation, Everett suggested making such a claim should radically alter the life of the individual Christian and the work of the church.

“If this is the word of God, why don’t we let it fashion our values and our lives in all things?”

Everett continued by stating some of the major claims of the Bible, namely the nature and ministry of Jesus Christ. If Jesus really was the Son of God, and God really did raise Jesus from the dead, then why should Texas Baptists remain silent on this glorious truth?

“When we see Jesus on the cross, God in the flesh taking our place on the cross, we say our sin must be horrible, and God’s love must be indescribable,” Everett said.

This love must be the motivating factor that drives Texas Baptists to mission, he said. Everett pointed out the needs of the mission field in Texas.

“What if half of all Texans did not know Christ?” Everett asked. “When we walk down the streets of Houston, every-other person would be someone who did not know Jesus.”

“What if 3 million Texans go to bed hungry?” he continued. Among these 3 million hungry, many are children who have no ability to feed themselves. 

Everett told various stories of ways Texas Baptists already are reaching toward fulfilling the Texas Hope 2010 vision.

At Dallas Baptist University, more than 500 international students come from around the world.  One-third arrive already having accepted Jesus as Lord, and of those remaining, one-third become a Christian while attending the school, he noted.

“Over 100 students at DBU are from China,” Everett stated. “Imagine those who are now being sent back to China for Jesus Christ.”

At Baylor Health Care System in Dallas, chaplains led 900 individuals to faith in Christ the past three years.

Baylor University’s School of Social Work is sponsoring a conference with leaders from around the nation coming to discuss ways in to address the problem of world hunger.

Hundreds of children every year are cared for by Texas Baptist children’s homes. These children, Everett stated, “would have been abandoned otherwise.”

Through Baptist Student Ministries on 120 college campuses, through 561 endorsed chaplains, through nine universities, through five hospital systems, and through numerous other institutional partners, the hope of Christ is being shared, he reported.

However, the charge to share the hope is not left to the institutions.

“What if every Texas Baptist church, our 5,600 churches around the state, said, ‘By God’s grace we are going to share the hope of Christ with everyone in Texas’?” he asked.

Everett urged each church to set aside Jan. 31, 2010, as a day of prayer for hope in the state.

He continued by challenging each church to develop an Acts 1:8 strategy, taking the gospel to their immediate communities, their surrounding regions and the farthest reaches of the globe.

He citied the example of Baptists in El Paso, where churches are working to pass out Texas Hope 2010 CDs to every household in the city. The Texas Hope 2010 multimedia CDs provides listeners with the Gospel of John, as well as testimonies from Texas Baptists and information on accepting salvation through Jesus Christ.

Moving beyond El Paso, the churches continued in their Acts 1:8 strategy by reaching out to the city of Juarez, Mexico.Rampant violence in that city has led to the deaths of more than 1,700 people. Through the work of El Paso Baptists, Texas Hope 2010 CDs are being distributed by churches in Juarez.

“Pastors are using the CDs and inviting unchurched friends, sharing Christ with a world that is devastated, dark, dangerous and lost,” Everett stated.

In closing, Everett reiterated the challenge of Texas Hope 2010, asking Texas Baptists to take the charge of the Bible seriously and, “say ‘yes’ to God’s kingdom assignment.”

DALLAS—More than 170 members of the DBU Patriots athletic teams filled the Fair Park Centennial Building in Dallas Nov. 10 for the third annual H-E-B Feast of Sharing—a free thanksgiving meal for the homeless and people in need.

The student athletes—along with the DBU cheerleading squad and the Diamond Belles— joined a 1,000-member volunteer force to serve more than 10,000 people.

H-E-B has sponsored Feast of Sharing holiday dinners more than 20 years, and this marked the third time the event was held in Dallas. The supermarket chain provided transportation to the feast from homeless shelters and low-income neighborhoods.

The event included health services, a Kids-Zone with Santa Claus, craft stations, bounce houses and a jazz band, in addition to a traditional holiday meal provided by Central Market.

“Having the athletes play a part in serving food, picking up trash and making crafts with kids was a great opportunity to show Christ’s love in action,” DBU head tennis Coach Jennifer Curran said.

“It was a wonderful way to kick off the holidays and was also an important reminder that we are very blessed, and God calls us to serve those who are less fortunate than ourselves. I pray that our athletes were a true blessing to those they served.”

Nic Tacher, a junior on the Patriot golf team, enjoyed helping children decorate cookies.

“I really enjoyed spending time with them,” Tacher said. “And being there to help these people in need reminds me of what life is all about. I have been truly blessed.”

Ashleigh Elkins, a junior on the Lady Patriot soccer team, noted the joy she found in serving people who needed a helping hand.

“Most of all, this experience of getting to hand out food and drinks has shown me a side of life I never knew existed, and it really opened my heart to help them more,” she said.

HOUSTON—Baptists long have demonstrated expertise at telling the story of salvation. “It’s what we do,” said Duane Brooks, pastor of Tallowood Baptist Church in Houston. But Baptists often share an incomplete story.

“The nature of salvation is much richer and broader than the subject of conversion,” he said.

Brooks led a workshop during the 2009 Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting in Houston. His conclusions stem from months of preparation for his upcoming book, titled This Magnificent Salvation: What Salvation Means in a World Like This, scheduled to be released in early 2010 by BaptistWay Press.

Often, Baptists describe salvation only in terms of the forgiveness received from God through Jesus Christ, Brooks observed. While this is an important aspect of salvation, it is only one aspect, he said.

“If we preach salvation mainly as forgiveness, we are only showing one color of the rainbow,” he said.

Brooks went on to describe the entire spectrum of salvation—realization of the need for a Savior, God’s provision for that Savior, and acceptance of the Savior through conversion. Beyond that, the person experiences regeneration into a new person, sanctification to become more like Christ, new community relationships through the church, the charge to share their experience with others, the assurance of a final destiny with God and the realization of the hope of eternal life.

At least four basic elements are part of the transformation that happens when a person receives God’s gift of salvation—regeneration, justification, adoption and reconciliation, he said.

Regeneration, Brooks noted, is described as a wind in the New Testament, especially in Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus in the Gospel of John. While many in the Southwest and along the Gulf Coast understand wind as a destructive force, Jesus uses this example as a life-giving force, the force that brings the dead to life.

The individual experiencing salvation, then, experiences a wind of change that blows away the old and gives new life, just as God brought the dead bones to life in Ezekiel, Brooks said.

“Salvation is nothing less than life,” he said.

Justification involves the process whereby the individual is put in right standing with God. However, Brooks suggested, Baptists often see justification too narrowly.

“God not only counts us right,” he said, pointing to the work of British theologian N.T. Wright, “but he also makes us right.”

Through justification, God begins to use those he is making “right” to make his world “right.” He creates “agents of transformation,” Brooks claimed, “to help make all of heaven break loose on earth.”

A third aspect of the process of transformation is adoption.

“One of the greatest things that I get to do as a pastor is see couples go through the process of adoption,” Brooks stated. A child not born of blood becomes a part of the family out of love, providing the child with parents, he noted.

Brooks connected this with the salvation experience, as believers have a new spirit in them that cries out to God as “Abba, Father,” an endearing, loving term signifying a new relationship with God.

The final experience comes through reconciliation. Reconcil-iation has nothing to do with God reconciling himself to Christ, but rather God reconciling himself to the world through Christ, Brooks noted. This reconciliation provides a relationship with God the Father in the same way the Prodigal Son had a re-established relationship with his father, complete with a new robe, a ring and shoes on his feet.

“The richness of salvation is a great gift from God that the Scriptures share with us,” Brooks stated. “The more we learn of our salvation, the more we love our Savior.”

WASHINGTON (ABP) — A church-state watchdog group says a faith-based prison being proposed in Oklahoma would likely be unconstitutional.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State wrote the Oklahoma Department of Corrections Nov. 18 advising the state not to send prisoners to what would be the first all-Christian prison in the country.

Formerly best known as the town used for filming the 1996 blockbuster movie "Twister," Wakita, Okla., has been back in the news lately with town leaders supporting the building of a 600-bed facility for men nearing the end of prison terms. The prison would employ only Christians.

"Habilitation House," brainchild of an ex-con turned Baptist minister from Dallas, would hire only Christian administrators, employees, counselors and programs. "Residents," as the inmates would be called after their arrival, would be encouraged but not required to attend worship services.

Bill Robinson, founder of Corrections Concepts Inc., the non-profit company spearheading the project, argues that instilling a faith-based work ethic that emphasizes personal responsibility and provides income for family support and restitution and marketable job skills is more likely than traditional prison to return an offender to society as a law-abiding citizen.

Americans United, however, said the concept would inevitably result in indoctrination, and that funding it with taxpayer dollars would therefore represent an establishment of religion forbidden by the First Amendment of the Constitution.

"It is wrong for government to take taxpayers' money and spend it on religious indoctrination," said Barry Lynn, the group's executive director. "That's a violation of the fundamental rights of every American."

Lynn, an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, said he believes strongly that inmates should have access to religious services of their choosing, "but government should never favor one faith over others or coerce inmates to participate in religion."

Robinson has pitched his "faith- based work-ethic corrections" philosophy to several communities over the years without success. 

A native of Shreveport, La., Robinson served seven-and-a-half years in prison for white-collar crimes in the 1960s. He professed faith in Christ in the early 1980s and felt called into prison ministry in 1984. He was licensed as a minister of the gospel by First Baptist Church in Euless, Texas, in 1986.

Along with Southern Baptist Convention leader Jimmy Draper, Robinson first proposed to then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush in 1995 that he use a little-known federal Prison Industry Enhancement Certification Program, implemented in 1979, to promote Corrections Concepts Inc. as a faith-based initiative. Bush responded by appointing a 16-member task force to study how the government could expand its ability to fund social services through churches and other faith-based organizations.

After Bush became president in 2001, support for Habilitation House lost traction in Texas. The idea it inspired, however, moved to Washington, where the faith-based initiative became a centerpiece of the 43rd president's domestic agenda.

Robinson continued to promote his idea in local communities in Texas and Oklahoma. Several expressed interest, only to back out for political reasons or questions about whether the plan was financially viable.

In an open letter to citizens of Wilson, Okla., in February, Robinson withdrew his offer for lack of enthusiasm. "The Bible says, 'If a city does not receive you, shake the dust off your feet as testimony against them,'" he wrote. "We are convinced that when Habilitation House arrives, it will be in God's place, at God's time, and with God's people.

Dallas attorney John Sheedy, who has represented cities negotiating with Robinson, was quoted as saying that Satan does not want the project to succeed.

City fathers in Wakita, a community of 380 residents 35 miles north of Enid, Okla., have most recently expressed support for the idea, saying it would create jobs and help reduce recidivism.

"If Chicken Little doesn't come to town, we'll be open in 16 months," Robinson said recently in the Tulsa World.

He said he believes that as a religious organization, the prison will be able to hire only Christians, but if constitutional challenges do arise, the American Center for Law and Justice has agreed to represent the ministry for free.

AU, however, says a federal court has already struck down a similar program based on the Establishment Clause. In 2007 the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a Prison Fellowship inmate program in Iowa had "the effect of advancing or endorsing religion" and the per-diem method of state funding was direct aid to a religious organization in violation of the First Amendment.

Draper, a past president of the Southern Baptist Convention and retired president of LifeWay Christian Resources, spoke at a fundraiser benefit for CCI in April. A presentation packet for the program quotes Draper as saying there is more biblical authority for a Baptist prison than for a Baptist university and there ought to be "just as many Christian corrections centers as Christian medical centers."

Others endorsing the Habilitation House concept include former Vice President Dan Quayle, Prison Fellowship Founder Charles Colson and Paige Patterson, a former SBC president and current president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Next year the town of Wakita will celebrate the 15th anniversary of the filiming of "Twister," an Oscar-nominated action thriller starring Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton and Cary Elwes. The story of the movie actually began in 1991, when Wakita applied for and was denied a state grant to demolish old and abandoned buildings in the downtown area.

In the meantime director Steven Spielberg was looking for places to film a new movie idea hatched with author Michael Crichton featuring a town hit by an F4 tornado. With a $30 million budget, crew members spruced up buildings and yards only to later stage their destruction. Demolition crews reduced some of Wakita's original buildings to piles of brick, some of which were later salvaged and engraved. Today they are sold as souvenirs at the "Twister" Museum in downtown Wakita.

–Bob Allen is news writer for Associated Baptist Press.