FORT HOOD (BP)—About a dozen Southern Baptist chaplains stationed at Fort Hood in central Texas began ministering in the aftermath of a shooting on post Nov. 5 that left 13 people dead and 30 wounded.

“I was told that the chaplains at Fort Hood—about a dozen of whom are Southern Baptist —were involved on the ground yesterday, and started ministering during and right after the incident,” said Keith Travis, team leader of the chaplaincy evangelism team at the North American Mission Board.

“The Army is a big family, and the chaplains are a very prominent part of that family. And they are there right now providing pastoral care to the Fort Hood community,” Travis said. “We ask Southern Baptists to pray for our chaplains as they continue to minister.”

Gen. Douglas Carver, a Southern Baptist who serves as chief of chaplains for the U.S. Army, was at Fort Hood on Nov. 6 accompanying Secretary of the Army John McHugh, Carver's office said. About 30 grief counselors were available to soldiers at Fort Hood’s Spiritual Fitness Center (the chapel), according to the post’s public affairs office.

Gunfire broke out early in the afternoon Thursday on the base as about 300 soldiers were lined up to receive shots and have their eyes checked in preparation for deployment.

The alleged gunman, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a 39-year-old Army psychiatrist, was shot four times by a civilian police officer and remained hospitalized on a ventilator, the Associated Press reported.

Officials said the motive for the shooting was unclear, but various reports indicated that Hasan had expressed apprehension over deployment orders as well as disapproval of the war on terror.

Experts attributed the high number of casualties at the Soldier Readiness Center to the close quarters and ricochet fire. Some soldiers rushed to treat others by ripping their uniforms into makeshift bandages, AP said, adding that all but two of the injured were still hospitalized, and all were in stable condition.

President Obama ordered that flags be flown at half-staff in what he called a “modest tribute” to those who died and the military personnel who serve the United States.

At Memorial Baptist Church in Killeen, three miles from Fort Hood’s main gate, about 60 people gathered Thursday night for a question-and-answer time and for prayer. Pastor Ken Cavey said church leaders knew people would have spiritual questions following the shooting.

“When something like this happens, you’re dealing with a significant breach of trust as well as a significant breach of your own fear,” Cavey said, according to AP. “‘I survived this, what about the next time?’”

Cavey said that of the 1,100 people who regularly attend Memorial Baptist, about 75 percent either are active or retired members of the military.
First Baptist Church in Killeen, another large congregation with strong ties to Fort Hood, was praying for the situation and available to respond to needs.

“This was equal to the Oklahoma City bombing when you say this was an American serviceman who chose to take out his venom on American servicemen,” Randy Wallace, pastor of First Baptist, told AP. “It’s more twisted and dark when the enemy is us.”

The Bells, the student newspaper at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in nearby Belton, gathered comments from students who had connections to the Army post.

“Somebody in my class got a text message and … announced it,” Kelsy Caffas, whose husband is deployed in Iraq, told The Bells. “I was scared. I was kind of shocked, I mean … you hear about things like this happening, but you never think it's going to happen where you live … The majority of the soldiers I know on base are overseas right now, but I do know a few soldiers that, like my neighbors … that are on base.”

Another student said her father is a retired chaplain's assistant and now serves as a youth minister at Fort Hood, and some soldiers' children were at their house Thursday as the tragedy unfolded.

“They were with us when they heard the news, but as far as we know, all of their parents are OK,” Bethany Carter said. “They're all very shocked and angry.”

HUNTSVILLE—Gilbert Herrera, who served two prison terms in the Huntsville Unit in the 1970s, returned there recently. But this time, he brought a Christian message of hope to about 250 men who packed a brick chapel in the middle of the prison compound.

“I came here because I didn’t want to forget those I left behind,” he said. “I don’t want to get so wrapped up in my freedom that I forget those here.”

Herrera, a Lubbock-based evangelist, preached at the chapel service as part of City Reach, a series of evangelistic efforts to share the gospel with people in the greater-Houston area. CityReach precedes the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting, Nov. 16-17 in Houston.

Following a time of worship led by a 22-member choir and six-person band composed of inmates, Herrera passionately testified about Christ saving him more than 30 years ago from his drug abuse and leadership in the Brown Berets. He told the men Christ could radically change the direction of their lives.

“There is no reason why God can’t change these men into a good men, good fathers and good sons,” Herrera said.

Herrera believes Christ redeemed his life so he can show others who are in his former situation that they, too, can be changed by God’s grace.

“If I can get a son back home with his mother and child, then it is worth everything,” he said. “They think that nothing will ever happen in their lives. They come looking for hope and see an ex-convict who’s been out for 30 years and who didn’t come back with a sentence but with a Bible.”

At the end of the service, 24 men knelt at the front of the chapel, seeking prayer from leaders and accepting the hope Christ offers.

Chaplain Larry Hart prays for a man during an altar call at a Huntsville Unit chapel service.

Chaplain Larry Hart, who has directed the chaplaincy program at the Huntsville Unit six years, said prison services like the one led by Herrera offer a place for the offenders to leave their past behind.

“There is an abandonment that happens in a prison service,” Hart said. “Christ brings hope, and the prison is no different in the sense that if Christ is present, it brings hope and love.”

Each month, about 50 volunteers visit the Huntsville Unit to help with the chaplaincy program and minister to the 2,000 offenders housed there. Nearly 20,000 offenders are housed in five prisons in the Huntsville area.

“Volunteers are the greatest natural resource a chaplaincy program has,” Hart said. “The program couldn’t run near as well without volunteers. They are essential.”

As volunteers participate in the program and minister to the offenders, they too will walk away changed by what God has done, Hart said.

“You will leave with ‘Wow!’ on your heart, mind and lips because God is in this prison,” Hart said. “And the more Christian people who get involved, the more people will be changed.”

The men who accepted Christ during the event or while they are in prison will have an opportunity to grow in their faith as the chaplaincy program offers Bible study classes, weekly chapel services and discussion programs like Authentic Manhood that teaches men how to live as godly leaders.

Both Hart and Herrera believe prison ministry is at the heart of the biblical mandate to share Christ’s love with everyone—including offenders.

“Prison ministry is important because the Lord died for everybody,” said Herrera. “The last thing the Lord did before dying on the cross was to save a criminal. We have thousands and thousands of inmates and prisoners in our cities, and the Lord is the only solution.”

To this point, City Reach Houston has resulted in 108 professions of faith in Christ and 104 renewed commitments to follow Christ. The gospel also has been shared with many more people in the area.

For more information on City Reach and to learn about future prison ministry endeavors, visit www.cityreachhouston.org.

WACO—Churches want to help people on their spiritual paths. But sometimes, people are more concerned about navigating their way to such services as health care and job training.

Placing social workers in congregations to help community members deal with practical and financial issues—as well as emotional and spiritual needs—is the aim of Walking Alongside, a project of the Center for Family and Community Ministries in Baylor University’s School of Social Work, said Jon Singletary, center director.

The center found evidence for the need in a $2 million, three-year survey that included a sample of more than 10,000 congregations and faith-based organizations across the country, done with the help of Pew Charitable Trusts, said Singletary, associate professor of social work.

The nine-page survey revealed that despite congregations’ yearning to help their neighborhoods, “they didn’t always make the difference they wanted to,” Singletary said.

“We had to figure out how to make that happen. … Our role is to walk alongside them.”

The center’s effort began in 2006 when a few students who felt called to serve as social workers within congregations signed up for a specialized program in the School of Social Work.

The idea is catching on. The program that began with a half-dozen interns now has 18 students who serve on a community ministries team and will be congregational interns. Many of the program’s two dozen alumni are leading community ministries in several states and in several denominations.

When the concept was new, it took trial and error, said Samantha Oakley, the center’s associate director. She served as an intern in 2006-2007 at Calvary Baptist Church in Waco.

A soccer player, she tried to reach out by offering soccer games for the neighborhood in a grassy lot owned by a nearby church.

“One person showed up, plus my supervisor with the water cooler,” Oakley said. “What we learned is we can’t impose what we think people need.”

The interns switched to visiting families in the neighborhood to ask their input about how the church could aid, she said.

From such grassroots research, as well as information gleaned from the Pew study, the center put together a list of ideas churches could consider when beginning a new ministry, as well as examples of ministries other churches have offered.

“It’s a huge range from the more technical things, like health services, to more basic things like a food pantry,” Singletary said. “The churches that do the basics realized the same people keep coming back again and again for food and clothing and money. We began to hear things like, ‘We want to be more transformational.’”

At Lake Shore Baptist Church in Waco, interns in the past few years have led the way in that mission, Pastor Dorisanne Cooper said.

“It’s a wonderful complement to our ministry,” she said. “We look at whether we’re only putting a Band-Aid on things or whether we’re really helping spiritually and practically.

“What the interns have done is explore the way we went about our benevolence fund,” Cooper said. “We moved from a haphazard way to a more systematic and collaborative approach.”

The students helped the church link those in need to such resources as Caritas, Mission Waco, the Family Abuse Center, early childhood intervention groups and job training programs.

“We’re also able to take referrals from other social workers in town,” Cooper said. “Maybe they know of a child who doesn’t have a coat. We can use their expertise to better use our money, not just give $25 to whoever comes in and wants help with utilities.

“We don’t have to have the expertise. We just have to know who has the expertise.”

The church’s first intern was Carol McEntyre, a 2003 Baylor graduate who now is director of Buckner Community Ministries at First Baptist Church of Knoxville in Knoxville, Tenn.

“My job is to wake up every morning thinking about people outside the congregation in need,” she said.

She enlists the congregation for such projects as spending time with neglected children and mentoring homeless people seeking a fresh start.

In McEntyre’s classes at Baylor, “I learned the language of the church and of social work and how to combine them,” she said.

“But the most helpful thing was the social work placement. That changed my life,” she said.

“I walked away from Lake Shore saying, ‘I don’t ever want to do anything else.’”

Many churches and faith-based organizations cannot afford to hire social work interns or professionals, Singletary said. An intern’s salary is $3,000 a semester; a full-time social worker’s yearly salary likely would run $30,000 to $40,000, he said.

So, the center put together a 75-page directory of contacts in the Waco area. The directory costs $15.

“Even if churches can’t afford an intern or social worker, they can get nuggets to help them,” Singletary said.

The center’s next project will be to complete the list of resources they have begun to offer on their website to aid congregations, he said. Already, the list includes materials related to literacy, working with older adults, advocacy and after-school care.

“The steps have been small,” Singletary said. “It’s not a sprint. It’s a slow, long journey of helping churches love their neighbors in new and effective ways.”

AUSTIN – Many churches sponsor fun-filled fall festivals with costumes, candy, games and bounce houses. Primera Iglesia Bautista in Austin offered a bit more—a helping hand and word of hope for people going through hard times.

In addition to the typical fall festival activities, the congregation distributed food to about 350 people living in a mobile home park. Church members also shared the gospel with each person, Pastor Carlos Alsina reported.

The outreach, funded by the Texas Baptist Offering for World Hunger, embodies the care and evangelism aspects of Texas Hope 2010, Texas Baptists’ endeavor to share the hope of Christ with every person in the state by Easter 2010.

Seven people made professions of faith during the fall festival, and other people were asking questions about Christianity, the pastor said.

“Somehow God has put this place in our hearts, and he is blessing,” Alsina said.

Alsina hopes the outreach is part of a continuing ministry in the mobile home park. The same week as the festival, the congregation held its first home Bible study in the park, ministering to 42 people. Alsina prays it is the first of several that will help reach the area for Christ.

“I would like to see people be touched and changed with the gospel of Christ,” Alsina said. “I want to see home Bible studies right there on different days. The greatest need people have is to find Jesus.”

For more information about Texas Hope 2010, visit www.texashope2010.com.

ARLINGTON—While leading worship at this year’s Texas Baptist Youth Ministry Conclave, Steve Fee shared messages of hope and encouragement with youth workers who minister in the context of the struggles and challenges students face.

“At our concerts, we want people to have more than just a fun musical experience,” Fee said. “We want them to be ushered into a time of worship. It’s our desire that this music and our journey will introduce people to an irresistible Savior, and we want people to know about the glory of God and the never-ending hope that he offers.”

Fee and his band maintain a busy schedule performing concerts and leading worship at events around the country, and his songs such as “We Shine” and “All Because of Jesus” are making an impact on student ministries across the country.   

As a songwriter, Fee is known for the authenticity and vulnerability expressed in his lyrics. From his days as a young Christian to his struggle to find a place where his love for music and ministry could meet to the subsequent growth of recent years, Fee uses those experiences as a way to minister to others.

Wherever Fee performs, his goal is to offer more than a concert. He wants to provide students and young adults a life-changing encounter, he said.

In March, just days after the pastor of First Baptist Church in Maryville, Ill. was shot and killed by a gunman during a Sunday morning service, Fee found himself on the same stage and leading worship for their congregation.

“We had just written a song called ‘Everything Falls,’ which is about hope in the midst of tragedy and then found ourselves leading worship for a congregation who had experienced such a devastating loss,” Fee said. 

“It was a time to remind the body of believers that they were still being held by the strong arms of God in the midst of tragedy. The certainty of the hope and faithfulness that is found only in Jesus is most evident when the things in this world fail us. It’s in the midst of tragedy and despair where we find the sustaining strength of our God most clearly.”

The theme of hope in the midst of dark times greatly influenced the songs on his newest album, Hope Rising, he noted.

“When you factor Jesus into any equation in life, even in our darkest day, you will always find ‘hope rising.’ The truth about our existence remains: We are created to worship God. It boils down to asking God to let our lives, in the good times and bad, through seasons of peace or storms, reflect the goodness and grandness of who he is and his love.

“We want people to leave our concerts with an expanded view of who God is and an increased awareness of his grandness. I’m humbled to be in front of so many people and entrusted with a message and a mission—to paint a massive picture of God, worthy of a response. I love that we get to carry out that mission every day.”

PLAINVIEW—Don’t call Craig Sorley an environmentalist. He’s not too fond of the term environmentalism.

“It sounds too much like a religion,” Sorley said. “I would say I have a passion for creation stewardship. When we engage in efforts to be good stewards of creation, we honor God, our Creator.”

Sorley and Ed Brown, co-founders of Care of Creation, both recently spoke to students at Wayland Baptist University about the importance of taking care of the environment.

Sorley lives in Kenya, where he teaches classes at the Kenya Baptist Theological College and works with local churches, pastors and community members to help them better understand stewardship of natural resources, a cause to which he has devoted his life.

Growing up the son of missionary parents in eastern Africa, Sorley witnessed the AIDS epidemic that started in the early 1980s and ravaged the continent. But through his relationships, experience and acquaintances, he realized another problem soon would hit the African people.

“I began to realize there was another crisis in Kenya coming down the pipeline,” he said. “It had to do with the land, with deforestation, overfishing, and the careless way in which farmers practice agriculture on hillsides, leading to soil erosion.”

In 1987, Sorley graduated from high school and came to the United States to pursue a college degree in biology at Bethel University. But in 1989, his plans were put on hold as he was diagnosed with brain cancer. Throughout the treatment process, Sorley felt God calling him to service to find out how the church should respond to the question of environmental stewardship.

Sorley soon joined with Brown to form the Care of Creation organization through which he teaches the importance of conservation efforts. He has found the people and churches in Kenya open and receptive to the message.

“People there are so connected to the land,” he said. “When we came along and started developing a theology of creation stewardship, we started getting very positive feedback from Kenya Christians. Not just Baptists, but other denominations as well.”

Through his efforts, Sorley also hopes to encourage Christians in the United States to embrace the idea of creation stewardship and what it means.

“One of the real opportunities that I see is for mission agencies of all kinds to embrace this topic as a strategic part of their mission,” Sorley said. “I see it as a major area not only for discipleship with the Christians who already exist, but also a major opportunity to reach unreached people groups.”

The message of hope for eternity works hand-in-glove with bringing people hope for today, he said. Good stewardship begins with a change in attitude toward natural resources, he stressed.

• David Matthews to Royal Lane Church in Dallas as pastor.

• Wayne Barrett to First Church in Huntsville as interim pastor. He will continue to serve the church as associate pastor for music.

• Hope Melson has resigned as children’s minister at Calvary Church in Pilot Point.

• David Vernon has resigned as pastor of First Church in Taft.

• Darin Wood to Central Church in Jacksonville as pastor from First Church in Frankston.

DALLAS—Baptists must hold in tension three sets of paradoxical ideas if they are to remain faithful to their heritage and champion freedom, Brent Walker told participants at the T.B. Maston Christian Ethics Award Dinner Oct. 30 in Dallas.

The awards dinner is sponsored every-other year by the T.B. Maston Foundation , named for a pioneering Baptist ethicist who taught at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth much of the 20th century. Maston shaped the ethical thinking of generations of ministers and gained a reputation for leading Baptists to support civil rights and racial reconciliation.

The foundation presented its 2009 Maston Award to Leon McBeth, a leading historian of the Baptist movement who taught at Southwestern Seminary for 43 years.

The history McBeth chronicled showed Baptists to be people who “fought for religious liberty—for others as much as for ourselves,” stressed Walker, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty in Washington.

If Baptists intend to preserve religious liberty, they must maintain balance within three sets of ideas, he added. They are:

• The two religion clauses in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The nation’s founders gave religious liberty “double protection” by including two religion clauses—No Establishment and Free Exercise, he noted.

“Both ensure religious liberty; both require an institutional separation of church and state as a means to that end,” he said. “As soon as government starts to meddle in religion or takes sides in religious disputes, someone’s religious liberty is denied and everyone’s is threatened.”

Walker proposed a common-sense exercise for maintaining the tension between the religion clauses: “Every time we say ‘no’ to government’s at-tempt to promote religion to uphold the Establishment Clause, we should find a way to say ‘yes’ to its Free Exercise counterpart. This allows us always to seek to find a ‘win-win’ solution and keep these two clauses in proper balance.”

• Religious freedom and responsibility.

“Our freedom in Christ can never be separated from—and must always be limited by—the responsibility that we have to one another,” Walker stressed. “Freedom and responsibility, liberty and accountability—these dyads must always be held in tension.”

Freedom and religious liberty are not ends in themselves, he added.

“We are free, in the words of the Great Commandment, to love God and love one another,” he said. “… And our freedom in Christ must always be exercised in the context of the responsibility we have to one another. This also involves the ethical imperative of ensuring everyone’s religious liberty. An attitude of ‘religious liberty for me but not for thee’ is self-centered, irresponsible and sinful.”

• Civic withdrawal and engagement.

“Historically, for most Baptists, the separation of church and state has never meant a segregation of religion from politics or to strip religious talk from the public square. It does not relieve Baptists of their duties of citizenship,” Walker insisted.

Citing examples of Baptists who engaged government across the past four centuries, Walker observed, “We have always been committed to doing—rolling up our sleeves, going to work and speaking out in the public square.”

Tensions are part of life—including public life, he concluded. “It is my prayer, in our so-called post-modern, post-denominational time and throughout the next 400 years, we Baptists carry forward a proper understanding of these three issues and deal with them responsibly and constructively.”

LUBBOCK—Before singer/songwriter Josh Wilson received his first guitar, he had to make a promise to his father, David, senior pastor of Southcrest Baptist Church in Lubbock. He pledged to use the instrument for God.

Wilson kept that promise and began leading worship for his youth group. After high school, he attended Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., where he won the Christian Music Showcase during his junior year.

During his college years, Wilson sensed God leading him into a full-time itinerant ministry.

“God had really started laying some things on my heart, and I felt like he wanted me to communicate those things through songs,” Wilson said. “As God started opening some doors for me to write songs and play them for people, it was sort of a realization that I could use music as a way to further his kingdom.”

After graduating from Belmont University in 2006, Wilson signed with Sparrow Records and released his major label debut, Trying to Fit the Ocean in a Cup in 2008. The album was met with critical acclaim and hailed by Christian Retailing as “the future of Christian pop.”

“When I’m writing new songs, it’s pretty difficult to convey everything that I would like to share about God’s beauty and majesty in a song that only lasts a few minutes,” Wilson said. “That challenge is actually where the imagery for the album’s title came from. It’s like trying to fit the ocean in a cup. Trying to say something that hasn’t already been said before about matters of faith or the God of the universe is a huge challenge.

“When I’m writing, I have the church in mind. Our hope is in Christ, and we need to consistently be pressing into the gospel to learn what it really means to be a Christian. I want to encourage believers to hang on through the struggles, because life isn’t always good when we’re living in a fallen world.”

Wilson often uses personal experiences as inspiration for songs. “I keep a journal and put thoughts down for when I can sit down and write a song. Usually, the melody and lyric come about the same time, then I’ll figure out the overall idea for the song and sort of go from there,” he said.

Wilson keeps a busy schedule performing concerts around the country. He performed at Dallas Baptist University’s “Spiritual Rush,” and he has released a new album, Life is not a Snapshot.

“God has been teaching me that this life really does come in seasons. There are ups and downs, and our constant through all of it is the Lord. We’re not always going to have good days and our circumstances won’t always be preferable, but I think we can find true joy and contentment in the Lord, even when things aren’t going well,” he said. 

“I hope that my songs will encourage people, and will also challenge them and make them think about what they believe in. I find that the more honest I am in a song, the more people can connect with it. If people are still searching for the truth when they come to a concert, my prayer is that the songs will point people closer to Jesus. It’s my desire through these songs for people to realize that Jesus is the answer to what they are searching for, and he is the only one who can fill the void in their life and mend all the broken pieces.”

SEOUL, South Korea—A 42-member team of student athletes, cheerleaders, coaches, trainers and staff from Dallas Baptist University spent fall break in Seoul, South Korea, leading sports clinics for children and youth, ministering to homeless people and sharing their faith.

DBU Student Assistant Coach Justin Pinckney runs along with children during one of the basketball camps hosted by the DBU Patriot basketball team.

The trip was the latest effort in DBU’s Global Sports Mission Initiative. In recent years, the university has sent sports teams to Guatemala and Peru on mission trips.

“The Patriot Athletic Global Sports Mission Initiative was created to allow our student athletes the opportunity to experience other cultures by living and serving as cham-pions for Christ abroad, which is exactly what the basketball players and cheerleaders did,” DBU Athletics Director Ryan Erwin said.

“It was a blessing and truly amazing to watch these young men and women serve and share their faith in Christ as they used their God-given talents to minister and spread the word (of God) among the people of South Korea.”

Rising early each morning, the group traveled the city, experiencing the bustling urban life of Seoul and ministering along the way. Clinics provided Patriot basketball players and cheerleaders opportunities to share not only their athletic knowledge, but also their testimonies of God’s grace and love.

“It was truly amazing to be able to teach these young students the fundamentals of basketball while sharing the love of Christ,” said Braxton Adamson, a DBU basketball player.

Teaching cheers.

Cheerleaders worked diligently to teach special cheers to students, encouraged them throughout their practice and invited them to join them in the limelight by performing at the basketball games DBU played during their stay in South Korea.

“I was so proud of the girls that week,” DBU Head Cheer Coach Skyla Alvarado said. “They were able to bless hundreds of lives through their teaching, while also providing a great service for these schools.”

The students also delivered meals to homeless people and prayed with them.

The DBU mission group attended worship services at Central Christian Academy’s Wonchon Baptist Church and Suwon Central Baptist Church, where they heard a sermon by former pastor Billy Kim, past president of the Baptist World Alliance and head of the Far East Broadcasting Company.

In prayer at OSAN U.S. Air Force Base.

“Grateful for our commitment to make this journey, the Korean Christians in turn inspired us by their passion for Christ,” DBU Basketball Head Coach Blake Flickner said. “All over South Korea, thousands of believers go to early morning prayer services six days a week. The churches are full, and their enthusiasm was contagious.”

The DBU men’s basketball team played three official games during their time in Korea, in addition to playing in the sports clinics. They competed against Kyung Hee University and Chung-Ang University, as well as an all-star squad from OSAN U.S. Air Force Base.

“We thoroughly enjoyed playing the various teams, and we learned several things that will make us better for the season ahead,” Flickner said. “However, basketball was a very small part of our experience.

“The trip was memorable because of the fellowship and worship we were able to enjoy with believers from halfway around the world. The clinics we held provided a great opportunity for our players to share their testimonies and to be a witness to the next generation of young people in South Korea. I was very proud of our student athletes and the love they showed to these kids.

“I trust that the young South Koreans were encouraged and challenged in their faith, but I also know that we have grown tremendously through the experience.”

ARLINGTON—Schools at all levels welcome the help of concerned churches—if congregations take the proper approach, Superintendent Thomas Wallis of the Palestine Independent School District told Texas Baptist youth ministry workers.

At a recent Palestine Head Start assembly recognizing the efforts of about 250 3-year-olds and 4-year-olds, Wallis said, the meeting leader asked the children’s fathers to raise their hands. Four men responded. The remaining adults in attendance either were guardians, mentors, volunteers or ministers.

Working to support children who otherwise would lack adult support is one way Christians can help schools, Wallis said during Youth Ministry Conclave, a Texas Baptist-sponsored event for youth workers and leaders.

Young people are looking for help, he stressed. They also are looking for something to belong to, as evidenced in the fact that roughly 772,500 of them nationwide belong to gangs.

Church can provide that help and that positive place to belong, Wallis said. Ministers regularly attend sporting events to support their students, but they also need to go to academic competitions, choir concerts and other extracurricular activities for their students. If ministers are seen regularly around students, school administrators will know the ministers truly care about students.

Participants worship at the Youth Ministry Conclave in Arlington.

Youth ministers also can train their students to look for their peers who eat by themselves or seem to lack friends, Wallis encouraged. Urge students to befriend these young people as Christ would.

“I challenge you to go to your schools, your administrators to make your gang—God’s gang—the cool group,” Wallis said.

In order to have this kind of impact, congregations and believers must be proactive, Wallis said. They need to meet the administrators of their local schools and discuss ways they can help and understand the boundaries of what administrators desire.

While students have freedom of religious expression, the exercise of it cannot interfere with school activities, Wallis noted. A circle of students praying in the hallway that prevents other students from getting by will not be tolerated. Youth ministers who show up with free pizzas at lunch and disrupt the school’s schedule or order will be asked to leave a campus.

But if students and ministers work within legal guidelines, they can have an impact on their campuses, Wallis said. And that aid will be appreciated. When administrators see church leaders as helpful on their campuses, they are more likely to turn to them in the case of a crisis such as a student death.

“We need help,” Wallis said.

ARLINGTON—At times, ministry—like life itself—will be a struggle, said Francis Chan, author of Crazy Love and pastor of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, Calif. After all, he noted, the Bible predicts Christ’s followers will be persecuted and face challenges.

But the God of the Bible also strengthens his servants, Chan told the Youth Ministry Conclave, a Texas Baptist-sponsored event in Arlington.

As believers seek to expand God’s kingdom, they will encounter obstacles, Chan said, noting he’s recently experienced challenges within his church and went through a period where he dealt with anger as a result of the situation. He went as far to say that “he lost his grace” with other people, losing part of his witness to others.

But if Christians turn to Christ during struggles, they can discover a new closeness to him. During trials, people are more willing to rely on God, he said.

He described meeting one of 23 Korean missionaries imprisoned by the Taliban in Afghanistan. Two missionaries were killed during the hostage situation, and the others were released about six weeks later. The survivor Chan met said he’d never felt closer to Christ than during that experience.

“There’s something about suffering and this intimacy with Jesus that we don’t feel otherwise,” he said.

In times of struggle, God cares for his people, Chan said. He encouraged youth ministers and workers who are frustrated or ready to give up to forge on in their efforts to expand God’s kingdom.

“The God of all grace, he himself restores you, strengthens you, confirms you,” Chan said.