WACO—A university-based Christian organization that mobilizes engineering students to serve the people of developing countries is expanding to become a national nonprofit organization.

Baylor University’s Engineers with a Mission has expanded to Global Appropriate Technology Ministries. The organization will serve as a nonprofit engineering consulting agency for foreign mission projects around the world.

“What we envision this new nonprofit to be is kind of a sourcing agency for mission projects that if, for example, you need a civil engineer and electrical engineer to come out and build a water purification system or install solar panels for an orphanage in Africa, we can provide that,” said Brian Thomas, senior lecturer of electrical and computer engineering at Baylor, who acts as the faculty adviser to Engineers with a Mission.

“The engineers would usually volunteer their time and expertise. However, in some cases, the money we raise will be used to pay them at least a portion of their salaries and travel expenses.”

Engineers with a Mission uses engineering students to serve the people of developing countries with their technical skills through culturally appropriate technology projects and mission-oriented trips abroad. Thomas founded the pilot chapter at Baylor in 2004.

Thomas said the idea is that Global Appropriate Technology Ministries could provide mission trips with engineers of all disciplines, from electrical engineers to mechanical to civil engineers.

Baylor’s Engineers with a Mission also is expanding the scope of its ongoing work in Honduras.

With 10 students and two Baylor faculty, participants in an upcoming mission trip will split into two smaller groups and serve in two locations.

In the first village, Danta Uno, located in the north central part of Honduras, Baylor engineering students will install a circuit breaker that will allow residents to have electricity 24 hours a day, rather than just a few hours at night.

Last year, Baylor students installed a microhydroelectric generator, which supplied small amounts of power to the village. The students also installed power lines to the homes and electrical meters. However, the metered system no longer will be used after students install the new circuit breaker. The village will be on a fixed-rate tier system for electricity.

In the second village, Pueblo Nuevo, a group of Baylor engineering students will install another microhydroelectric generator, which should provide electricity to about 60 homes. The electricity generated will be used for home lighting.

Most of the residents are poor farmers and light their homes using homemade “candils”—glass jars of kerosene with a cloth wick cut from old clothing. They are costly, give poor light and are a fire hazard. The trip will be the third time a Baylor engineering group has traveled to Pueblo Nuevo.

• Howard Payne University will hold its Young Scholars and Summer Scholars programs June 15-19. The events involve children entering grades 1-6 and will run each day from 9 a.m. until noon. The cost is $150. Younger children will receive innovative instruction in reading, music, science and physical education. Older children will learn computer graphics, speech/ debate, science and physical education. For more information, call (325) 649-8517.

• The 23rd annual bivocational and smaller church ministers’ and spouses’ statewide conference will be held July 10-12 at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor . The theme is “Simple Solutions for Tough Times: Living by Faith.” Among the topics for pastors will be counseling, helping people deal with addictions and sermon preparation. In the music/worship track, topics include high-tech worship, worship software and working with children. Other topics include church security and liability, missions in the smaller church and changing communities. Topics of women’s interest and Spanish-language seminars will be included. A teens’ conference will run concurrently and feature a concert by the Nick Gainey Band on Friday. The $90 registration fee includes room, meals, and tickets to two concerts. Tickets for The Hubbard Family concert on Friday or the David Meece concert on Saturday can be purchased separately for $10. Youth under age 18 are free. A scholarship golf tournament will be held Friday morning. For more information, call (214) 828-5387.

• Robert Creech, pastor of University Church in Houston 22 years, has been appointed professor of Christian ministries and director of pastoral ministries at Baylor University’s Truett Seminary . He will replace Levi Price, who is retiring. Creech earned his Ph.D. in New Testament studies from Baylor in 1984.

• Dallas Baptist University honored Albert Black Jr. and Dennis Jeter as recipients of its Good Samaritan Award at its annual DBU-Oak Cliff Partner-ship Dinner. Black, raised in South Dallas, is a successful businessman who gives back to the community. Jeter is the owner of Jeter & Sons Funeral Home in Oak Cliff. Both men are active in their churches.

• Trevor Brown, a junior from Baytown, was awarded the Wallace Roark Prize in Christian Doctrines at Howard Payne University’s Christian doctrines colloquy. Also presenting papers at the colloquy were Jonathan Adams, Crystal Brown, Bethany Elmore and Jeffri Malone.

Anniversaries

• Bob Parker, fifth, as pastor of First Church in McGregor, May 3.

• Hulen Street Church in Fort Worth, 50th, May 31. John Mark Yeats is interim pastor.

• Bryan and Lorna Price, 10th, as summer resort missionaries working with Alpine Resort Ministries in Creede, Colo., June 14. They are members of First Church in Pittsburg, where he served almost 20 years as minister of music/associate pastor.

• Samuel Buhl, 10th, as pastor of True Love Church in Cameron.

Deaths

• Gaye Smith-Tanner, 62, May 13 in Lubbock. She died of cancer and its complications. A minister’s wife, she supported her husband, Wil, in his ministry in Dallas and Lubbock churches. He is pastor of Pilgrim Church in Lubbock and a member of the board of directors of the Baptist Standard. She was a Sunday Bible study teacher and congregational family ministry team leader at the Lubbock church. A native of San Antonio, she was a former member of Macedonia Church there. She is survived by her husband; daughters, Tracie Patrick-Lee and Tiffany Downs; son, Johnny Patrick; stepsons, Gary, David and Wilburn Tanner; stepdaughter, Donna Tanner; sister, Bessie Carraway; brother, Rogers Smith Jr.; and five grandchildren.

• Sam Pearis IV, 78, May 24 in Universal City of pulmonary fibrosis. A 27-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force, he flew more than 170 combat missions in Vietnam. He retired from the Air Force in 1980, but during his service was awarded the Legion of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal and the Air Force Commendation Medal. For three years following his retirement, he was a volunteer member of the San Antonio Baptist Association staff, promoting missions and recruiting volunteer missionaries. In 1984, he became the Mission Service Corps director for the Baptist General Convention of Texas, recruiting self-supporting missionaries to serve all over the world. During his time of service, the ranks of the MSC grew from 100 to more than 1,250. With his wife, Polly, as his assistant, they served until retirement in 2002. In 2003, they retired to Universal City and were active in First Baptist Church there. He also was a charter member of the Baptist Health Foundation of San Antonio board of trustees. He is survived by his wife of 54 years; children, Tamara and Barry; brothers, John and Herbert; six grandchildren; and two great-granddaughters.

Revivals

• Oplin Church, Clyde; June 14-17; evangelist, Herman Cramer; music, Ernie Overstreet; pastor, James Teel.

WASHINGTON (ABP) — The Baptist World Alliance has responded to Cyclone Aila, which killed nearly 200 and destroyed thousands of homes May 25 in Bangladesh and India.

Baptist World Aid, the BWA's relief-and-development arm, sent grants totaling $12,000 for emergency relief.

Leor Sarkar, general secretary of the Bangladesh Baptist Fellowship, one of three BWA member bodies in the country, told BWA officials the greatest immediate need is fresh water and dry food. He said most wells in an area Baptist leaders visited were contaminated with seawater, and a number of survivors are living on boats.

Sarkar said the Bangladesh Baptist Fellowship has already begun distributing drinking water and food. BWAid contributed $5,000 to the cause.

Sarkar, a member of the BWA Commission on Church Leadership and the Promotion and Development Committee, said 27 Baptist churches in five districts in Bangladesh were affected by the disaster.

BWAid sent another $7,000 to Bangladesh Baptist Church Sangha, another member body in Bangladesh. The money will be used to purchase food for about 2,000 families through the group's Social Health and Education Development board commonly known as SHED.

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WASHINGTON (ABP) — Results from a Gallup poll released May 27 show that a majority of Americans continue to oppose same-sex marriage — but that the youngest voters support equal marriage rights for homosexual couples by a wide margin.

And support for other gay-rights issues is much higher among the public at large, including overwhelming majorities in favor of homosexuals serving openly in the military, some domestic-partnership rights and adding sexual orientation to existing federal hate-crimes statutes.

The survey results — the latest set of data from a poll on beliefs and values Gallup conducts each May — showed 57 percent of Americans oppose legal recognition of same-sex marriage, while 40 percent support it. Those figures are virtually unchanged from last year.

Levels of support and opposition to same-sex marriage have remained fairly close to those same figures every year since 2004, when Gallup began asking the question annually. Gay marriage support reached its peak — and opposition its low point — in 2007, with 46 percent supportive and 53 percent opposed.

But, as previous polls have shown on the topic, younger respondents are far more supportive of gay marriage than their elders. While all age groups surveyed except for 18-29 year-olds opposed same-sex marriage by large margins, the youngest group supported marriage rights for gays by a margin virtually opposite that of the nation as a whole. Fifty-nine percent of 18-29 year-olds support same-sex marriage, while only 37 percent oppose it.

On other rights advances for which many gay groups have pushed, the poll found support among the populace at large either increased over last year or remained statistically constant. Fifty-six percent believed same-sex relations between consenting adults should be legal, while 40 percent said they should be illegal.

On two gay-rights issues whose fate is currently before Congress, the poll showed overwhelming public support. More than two-thirds of respondents — 69 percent — believed the military should repeal its ban on openly gay service members. That figure is significantly higher than the approximately 43 percent polls consistently showed approving of openly gay servicemen and women in 1993, when President Clinton first proposed repealing the Pentagon’s gay ban.

President Obama also promised to repeal the ban in his election campaign, but so far has not devoted significant political capital to pushing legislation that would do so.

On another controversial issue in Congress, the poll showed strong public support for the gay-rights position. Sixty-seven percent of respondents favored adding sexual orientation as a protected class to federal hate-crimes statutes. Those laws already provide additional penalties for crimes motivated by bias against the victim’s race, national origin or religion.

Additionally 73 percent of respondents favored inheritance rights for gays and lesbians when their life partners die, and 67 percent said same-sex domestic partners should have access to their significant other’s health coverage and other employee benefits.

“While Americans have become increasingly likely to believe that the law should not discriminate against gay individuals and gay couples, the public still seems reluctant at this point to extend those protections to the institution of marriage,” Gallup’s press release analyzing the results concluded. “Public support for gay marriage appears to have stalled in the last two years, even as the gay marriage movement has scored a number of legal and legislative victories at the state level in the past year.”

In recent weeks, state legislatures in Vermont and Maine and the highest court in Iowa have legalized same-sex marriage in those states. Bills that would do the same are currently being considered by legislators in New Hampshire and New York and city council members in the District of Columbia. Connecticut and Massachusetts already allowed same-sex marriage.

The Gallup poll of 1,015 adults was conducted May 7-10. Earlier data sets released from the survey revealed that Americans seemed to be trending in a more conservative direction on several divisive social issues, including abortion rights and embryonic stem-cell research.

–Robert Marus is managing editor and Washington bureau chief for Associated Baptist Press.

Related ABP stories:

Poll says Americans moving rightward on social issues (5/20)

Gallup poll finds ‘pro-life’ majority for first time, but some question results (5/15)

Same-sex marriage advances in Maine; N.H. and N.Y. next (5/6)

Vermont first state to approve gay marriage legislatively (4/7)

Iowa Supreme Court says state cannot deny marriage to gays (4/3)

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (ABP) — Ads airing on Christian and mainstream radio stations in several states are attempting to frame health care as a moral issue.

Sponsored by a broad coalition of faith-based groups led by PICO National Network, the ads urge members of Congress in swing districts and states to move forward with legislation making health care affordable for all Americans. Organizers said they hoped lawmakers would hear the ads — and from constituents — while in their home districts for Congress' weeklong Memorial Day recess.

"It seems like almost every day someone else in my community is worried they won't be able to keep paying for their family's health care," Wallace Hartsfield Sr., pastor emeritus of Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church in Kansas City, Mo., said in the version of the ad airing in Missouri.

"Missourians are working harder than ever, but health care is becoming less and less affordable," Hartsfield said. "It's just not right. Every person, created in the image of God, is of limitless value."

Hartsfield, an adjunct faculty member at Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Shawnee, Kan., was part of the recent Baptist Border Crossing in Liberty, Mo., one of four regional meetings being held this year as part of a New Baptist Covenant movement launched in 2008.

The brainchild of former President Jimmy Carter, that movement aims to unify various Baptist groups in North America traditionally divided by race and doctrine around common values including concern for the poor.

"We believe that health care is a moral issue," Rayfield Burns, minister of outreach and missions at Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church, told reporters in a recent conference call announcing the ad campaign. "It is an issue that should be of great concern to those that sit in high places in our government."

"Jesus was concerned about more than just the souls of men and women," Burns said. "He was concerned about the whole man. We should be concerned as well."

Also supporting the campaign is Steve Beckham, pastor of First Little Rock Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, La., who reads the script targeting listeners in Louisiana. Other ads ran in Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana and Nebraska, all viewed as states key to determining the fate of health-care reform.

The ads are paid for by Faithful America, an online community of progressive Christians motivated to public policy by faith. Formerly hosted by the National Council of Churches, in 2007 it moved to Faith in Public Life, a group of faith leaders formed to counter partisanship of the Religious Right. Organizers would not say how much they paid for the radio ads, saying they don't usually reveal their strategies in that much detail.

Leading the effort is PICO, an acronym for People Improving Communities through Organizing, a national network of faith-based community organizations founded in 1972. Other sponsors include Sojourners, Gamaliel Foundation and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good. A press release called it an unprecedented degree of collaboration between faith-based community-organizing networks and national religious groups.

The radio ads are part of a larger campaign including grassroots events, forums and meetings. Hundreds of clergy from various denominations have pledged to preach on health-care reform in June and July and signatures are being collected for a National Clergy Letter supporting health-care reform from a faith perspective.

–Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

WASHINGTON (ABP) — A church-state watchdog group says the IRS should review Liberty University's tax-exempt status for its decision to revoke recognition of its Democratic Party club.

University officials ordered the student group May 15 to cease using the school's name, logo, seal or mark in any of its publications, including electronic postings on a website, Facebook or Twitter.

Mark Hine, vice president for student affairs, said the university could not "lend support to a club whose parent organization stands against the moral principles held by Liberty University."

"Even though this club may not support the more radical planks of the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party is still the parent organization of the club on campus," Hine said. "The Democratic Party platform is contrary to the mission of LU and to Christian doctrine (supports abortion, federal funding of abortion, advocates repeal of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, promotes the 'LGBT' agenda, hate crimes, which include sexual orientation and gender identity, socialism, etc)."

"Contrary to the mission" 

Hine said candidates supported by the party "are directly contrary to the mission" of the university founded by the late Jerry Falwell.

Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said May 27 said the university may have violating federal tax law by denying recognition to a Democratic club while recognizing one for Republican students.

"Liberty University is a tax-exempt institution and isn't allowed to support one party over another," Lynn said. "If the school insists on pushing policies that favor Republicans over Democrats, it should have to surrender its tax exemption."

Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. said May 25 that a lot of the media reporting about the decision was wrong, and it started when Terry McAuliffe, a Democratic gubernatorial candidate for Virginia, called a telephone press conference to talk about the college Democrat club formed by students of Liberty University.

Falwell said the university had not "banned" Democrats, as some headlines proclaimed. He said the club can continue to meet on campus but will not be officially recognized, meaning it cannot use Liberty's name or receive university funds.

"Parents and students support the university because they believe in its distinctly Christian identity and mission," Falwell said. "Liberty University is pro-life and believes that marriage between one man and one woman provides the best environment for children. Liberty University will not lend its name or financial support to any student group that advances causes contrary to its mission."

About core values 

Falwell said the school also would not endorse a Republican student group that supported abortion rights. "Liberty stands for certain core values," he said, "not for a political party."

But Lynn said campus political clubs often endorse and work on behalf of candidates, amounting to an in-kind contribution. By allowing students to support only one party, Lynn said the university appeared to be taking sides. 

"As a tax-exempt institution, Liberty is barred from intervening in elections or showing preference for one political party over another," Lynn said in a letter to the IRS. "By banning a Democratic club while permitting a Republican club to exist and offering funding to the latter but not the former, university officials appear to be operating in violation of federal tax law."

Lynn said he found the incident "very troubling" and urged officials "to investigate this matter and ensure that the law is enforced."

–Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

WASHINGTON (ABP) — Supporters of separation between church and state reacted cautiously May 26 to President Obama’s selection of Sonia Sotomayor as his nominee to replace retiring Justice David Souter on the Supreme Court.

Despite an extensive record on the bench, the judge for the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled on only a handful of cases involving the First Amendment’s religion clauses. Two church-state legal experts said May 26 the few cases there are don't point to any extraordinary beliefs about religious freedom.

“The Senate Judiciary Committee should thoroughly question Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor to determine her views on church-state separation,” said a statement on the nomination from Americans United for Separation of Church and State. “It appears that Sotomayor has not written widely on church-state issues, meaning the committee has an obligation to ascertain her views.”

The Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty also released a statement. The Washington-based group said it “looks forward to learning more about Judge Sotomayor by carefully reviewing her record” but hoped she would rule on religion issues in a fashion similar to the justice she is slated to replace.

“More than any other justice, Justice Souter has reflected the Baptist Joint Committee's understanding of the proper interpretation of the religion clauses and how they apply to contemporary church-state issues,” said BJC Executive Director Brent Walker.

In an entry posted on the Religion Clause blog shortly after Sotomayor’s nomination was announced, blogger Howard Friedman pointed to a handful of instances where the judge has ruled on cases related to the First Amendment’s two clauses dealing with religion. A few come from her time on the 2nd Circuit. Several more are from her tenure as a New York federal district judge before that.

Her most significant opinion on church-state issues was a dissent from the 2006 Hankins v. Lyght decision. In that case, a three-judge panel of the 2nd Circuit ruled 2-1 that a the Religious Freedom Restoration Act applied to a Methodist minister’s age-discrimination lawsuit against the New York Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.

Sotomayor disagreed, saying the federal law could not be applied to disputes between private parties, but only to government attempts to limit or burden the free exercise of religion.

In two other 2nd Circuit cases involving prisoners’ rights to the free exercise of religion, Sotomayor authored opinions in favor of inmates who contended that prison officials had violated their rights.

In the 2003 Ford v. McGinnis decision, Sotomayor said New York prison officials did not prove their denial of an Islamic holy meal to prisoner Wayne Ford was merely a minimal infringement of his religious free-exercise rights. 

Likewise, in the 1999 Salahuddin v. Mead decision, Sotomayor said a lower court could not dismiss, on procedural grounds, a Muslim prisoner’s complaint that prison officials repeatedly denied his requests to receive spiritual counseling from a chaplain.

She also sat on 2nd Circuit panels that ruled on other religion cases — many involving prisoner religious rights as well as other issues related to the First Amendment's Free Exercise Clause and Establishment Clause.

In one well-known case, the 2002 Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church v. City of New York decision, Sotomayor joined her colleagues in affirming a prominent Manhattan congregation’s right to allow homeless people to sleep on its property. The 2nd Circuit upheld a lower court’s injunction finding that then-New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani would not likely succeed in his attempts to evict the homeless whom the church had allowed to sleep in the entryways to its buildings.

Robert Tuttle, a church-state expert and professor at George Washington University Law School, said Sotomayor’s record on cases dealing with the free exercise of religion “reflects widespread judicial consensus about the relevant standards” applying to such cases.

“In other words, I think her free exercise cases are about right down the middle of the bell curve,” he said.

Tuttle’s George Washington colleague and fellow religion-law expert, Chip Lupu, said he had not read all of the relevant cases and was hesitant to draw broad conclusions about whether Sotomayor places a higher value on the free exercise of religion than her judicial colleagues.

However, he did note that, “It is frequently easy for judges to rule against prisoner free exercise claims, so it does say something about her attitude toward religious freedom that she has ruled for prisoners on several occasions.”

However, Lupu concluded, “I will say with some confidence that there is nothing in her record that suggests her view on religion-clause issues is going to be important in the confirmation process.”

Sotomayor’s nomination was immediately questioned by many social conservatives, who accused her of embracing a philosophy of race-based decision-making and advocating legislating from the bench. They also accused Sotomayor of being out of step with the court she hopes to join, noting that many of her decisions as a federal judge have been overturned by the Supreme Court.

If confirmed by the Senate, she would be the first Latina — and only the third woman — to serve on the nation’s highest court.

If she replaces Souter, Sotomayor would also be one of six Catholics on the Supreme Court. Souter and Justice John Paul Stevens are the only Protestants currently on the panel, which also contains five Catholics and two Jews.

President Obama is reportedly asking the Senate to complete her confirmation hearings and vote before the chamber’s August recess, currently scheduled to begin Aug. 7.

A recordkeeping glitch prompted some Baptist bloggers erroneously to accuse the Baptist General Convention of Texas of escrowing funds from the Lottie Moon Offering to improve its cash flow.

However, officials at the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee and the Texas convention confirm the BGCT has forwarded more than $9.95 million in Lottie Moon funds to the IMB since Jan. 1, and those gifts have been wired to the SBC Executive Committee for distribution on a monthly basis as the state convention has received them from churches.

Lottie Moon money kerfuffle apparently over.

“Each month, we send the designated gifts we have received for all the SBC institutions to the SBC. We follow this same timeline for any institution on whose behalf we receive designated gifts,” BGCT Treasurer Jill Larsen said.

BGCT records show wire transfers of designated gifts—including Lottie Moon Offering funds—on Jan. 15, Feb. 6, Mar. 23, April 14 and May 20 totaling $10.18 million.

Same-day transfers 

“With wires, SBC receives it the same day we send it,” Larsen explained.

By February, the BGCT had sent more than $6 million in designated funds for the IMB to the SBC Executive Committee. The problem arose in March, when the SBC Executive Committee reported no designated gifts to the IMB forwarded by the BGCT. In fact, the BGCT had sent the money but without the necessary remittance form indicating how it was to be distributed.

After the matter became a topic of public discussion in the blogs and after being contacted for comment, the IMB issued this statement: 

“The IMB is thankful for the gifts of Southern Baptists to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering flowing through the Baptist General Convention of Texas. There was a temporary delay in the receipt of funds related to the installation of a new software system in the BGCT offices.  Funds were received from BGCT prior to that delay and have been received since the implementation was completed. We remain grateful for the sacrificial giving of Southern Baptists to reach a lost world for Christ."

That reporting error—and apparent discussion of it by unnamed sources associated with the IMB—prompted an entry by Bart Barber, pastor of First Baptist Church in Farmersville, on his blog—praisegodbarebones.blogspot.com —titled “BGCT Refusing to Release Lottie Moon Funds, Sources Report.”

“Sources within the International Mission Board report that the Baptist General Convention of Texas is escrowing Lottie Moon Christmas Offering funds to safeguard BGCT cash flow,” wrote Barber, whose church in recent years withdrew its affiliation from the BGCT and affiliated with the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.

“Although the official BGCT budget has shown increasing hostility toward SBC ministries since the 1990s, this event would constitute a rare occasion of BGCT’s taking action to blockade funds designated by BGCT churches to SBC causes.”

Barber’s entry subsequently was posted on sbctoday.com , and it prompted further postings on blogs by some other Baptists.

However, in the comments section, Barber’s blog also includes a detailed explanation submitted by Clark Logan, vice president for business and at the SBC Executive Committee, explaining the circumstances of the reporting error.

"Inaccurate and unfair"

In his comments, Logan characterized the initial blog entry and some subsequent comments as “inaccurate and unfair to the BGCT, the IMB, and the SBC Executive Committee.”

Logan noted the BGCT’s “consistent history of forwarding funds to the SBC Executive Committee,” and he confirmed the BGCT had forwarded more than $6.3 million in designated receipts for the IMB in the first two months of 2009, and the Executive Committee received an additional $3,301,826.17 for the IMB from the BGCT March 23.

However, the BGCT did not send with the funds in March a remittance form or any paperwork showing how the money should be applied.

“Apparently the implementation of new software at the BGCT complicated their ability to compile and issue the needed distribution report until after April 1. Therefore, even though the SBC Executive Committee was in possession of the designated fund sent on March 23, “$0.00” was reported because the proper application of those funds had not been verified by the BGCT,” Logan wrote. “Distribution and reporting of Designated Funds cannot be made by the Executive Committee until the distribution paperwork is received from the state conventions.”

Since the paperwork was not received until after the end of March, the amount received was not posted until April, he explained. The April report included both the April gifts and the gifts tendered on March 23.

“For these reasons, any claim that the BGCT ‘held money’ is erroneous,” he wrote.

“The business and finance division of the SBC Executive Committee works closely with the finance offices at all of the entities. Persons in those offices would have knowledge of or opportunity to access all of the above information. Anytime there is a question, I believe all of those offices would welcome the opportunity to respond to any inquiries from interested Southern Baptists. I wish our office had been called about this matter before various erroneous theories were proposed.”

Mea culpa … almost

In a subsequent blog posting, Barber acknowledged his error.

“I apologize for contributing to this imbroglio. A couple of telephone calls before clicking ‘Publish Post’ and I could have helped to right a misunderstanding of someone else’s making rather than becoming an unwitting accomplice,” he wrote.

Barber insisted he posted the initial entry because he trusted his sources, he considered the matter of missions money an important subject—and because he admittedly was ready to believe the worst about the BGCT.

“The story not only came from a credible source, but it matched up precisely to the reality that I could imagine to be most likely. Thus I posted without performing more research,” he acknowledged.

“And the entire situation puts me in the bitter-tasting situation of having somewhat wronged an institution that I dislike and owing it an apology. So, to the BGCT, I apologize for not taking greater care in reporting damaging information about you. I will endeavor, whenever criticizing you in the future, to exercise greater caution to stick to the many publicly verifiable items on which we disagree.”
 

ABILENE—Abilene bears the stamp of First Baptist Church.

In 1891, the church helped start Abilene Baptist College in cooperation with Sweetwater Baptist Association; the school now bears the name Hardin-Simmons University. In 1924, West Texas Baptist Sanitarium opened; it now is Hendrick Medical Center. In 1939, the church was instrumental in founding Hendrick Home for Children.

All are key dates in the history of both the church and the city, but one of the most important roles First Baptist Church played in influencing the city’s development was starting at least 14 Baptist congregations.

The husband-and-wife team of Rob and Tiffany Fink have written a book titled Love Unbounded: The Influence of the First Baptist Church of Abilene, Texas, chronicling how the church played a key role in shaping the city which has grown with it.

O.C. Pope served not only as pastor of First Baptist Church in Abilene (pictured in this 1883 photo), but also as the first president of Abilene Baptist College, which grew to be Hardin-Simmons University. (PHOTO/Courtesy of First Baptist Church in Abilene)

Tiffany Fink is an assistant professor of history at Hardin-Simmons University; Rob Fink is a visiting assistant professor of history at McMurry University. They are members of First Baptist Church.

First Baptist Church was founded in 1881, when Abilene itself was still being shaped to a great extent. Is First Baptist Church in Abilene still making an impact on the city? Can any church today have that same impact on its community?

The historian in Tiffany Fink takes her back to the church’s original focus and reason for striving toward beginning these bedrock entities.

“People in Abilene and First Baptist Church found purpose in meeting needs,” she said. They looked around and saw a need for medical care and formal education, as well as spiritual needs and sought to meet those.

Pastor Phil Christopher of First Baptist Church in Abilene said churches today need to take the same approach.

“Churches need to have a vision to meet needs. At that time contextually, it was a need for institutions. Now, the needs are single moms and rising divorce rates, so we see a need for a counseling center,” he explained. “The impact churches can have is just as pronounced. It’s just different,”

Tommy Brisco, dean and professor of Old Testament and archaeology at Hardin-Simmons’ Logsdon School of Theology, agrees churches not only can affect their communities in dramatic ways, but also need to.

“Lots of churches and institutions are doing it,” Brisco said. “One that jumps out is the work of Tillie Burgin of First Baptist Church in Arlington, and also Jersey Village Baptist Church in Houston where Ed Hogan is pastor. He and his church have a heart to meet the needs of people.

“I’m interim pastor at First Baptist Church in Levelland, and if you took the church out of that community, it would leave a large hole. It’s not a matter of scale or size, but of vision.”

The quandary for churches is that while a vision to meet needs seemingly is a timeless need, the nature of those needs changes—in some communities very quickly.

“One of the major considerations many churches are having to make right now is whether to stay downtown, which in many cities is declining, or moving out of those areas,” Mrs. Fink said.

“And it’s not just the landscape that changes, but the culture,” Brisco added. “With the expanding Hispanic culture, how do we respond to that? That becomes one of the real questions that has to resolved if we are to continue to be relevant.”

One way to keep in touch with the needs of the community is to take the time to look, Rob Fink said. He recalled a meeting where 40 people were discussing needs of the community, but they adjourned to get in their cars and just drive around. They all came back with a new awareness of how many children were running around unsupervised. A day care was started.

The pastor plays a key role in the impact a church has on its community, Brisco said.

“One of the things that is clear in my mind is that the pastors of these churches are connectors,” he said. The pastors have to be not just leaders in the church, but active in the community as well. They also have to be not only people of vision, but also people who will see that the job is done, Brisco continued.

It is important for churches to realize that the culture has changed the way evangelism is done, said Bob Ellis, associate dean of Logsdon Seminary.

“There was an era when Baptist churches grew through evangelistic revivals—y’all come,” he said. “The way we do evangelism now is through caring for people and meeting needs.”

That’s one of the things he likes best about the Texas Hope 2010 initiative launched by the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

“Everybody hears the gospel, and nobody goes hungry,” Ellis said. “It’s all about extending love to others. That’s what we’re called to do as followers of Christ. If we can redefine Christian as being the presence of Christ, we will see a renewing of their spirits.”

GALVESTON—Four men from Mission Waco’s homeless shelter joined four Baylor University students and two-dozen other volunteers with Waco’s Church Under the Bridge on a recent mission trip to Galveston.

Volunteers worked three days on five homes, repairing damage caused by Hurricane Ike.

“The group bonded as they worked alongside each other, eating meals together and hearing one another’s stories of each day’s work,” said Jimmy Dorrell, director of Mission Waco.

Including homeless people in meaningful ministry fits into Mission Waco’s philosophy of honoring the dignity of the poor and working to empower them, Dorrell explained.

“Instead of feeling sorry for those struggling on our streets, we try to find ways to help them give back to their own communities, nation and world. These men were ecstatic to use their skills to help others who had experienced loss. They had something to offer and their talents were needed and used,” he said.

The backgrounds of the four homeless men illustrate the individuality of the homeless population in general, he noted. One man is a licensed plumber who “just ran out of money” on the way to see his family and was stranded for weeks without a job, Dorrell explained.

One suffers from mental illness. One grew up in a meth lab operated by his family until it was raided and his parents were incarcerated. The fourth man “had struggled with numerous issues, but his conversion to Christ had changed his whole worldview, and now he was trying to find stability in Mission Waco’s supportive housing program,” Dorrell said.

“All of these men were accepted and included in every aspect of the trip, with no exclusion or fear from other mission goers. They didn’t need a food pantry or clothes closet or handout. They most wanted to be seen a person with human dignity, having value and gifts which could be shared for the sake of others,” Dorrell said. “They were not ‘homeless men’ on this trip. They were individuals, with names, personalities and personal opinions.”

Ministries to poor people based only on pity can lead to dehumanization and dependency, he stressed.

“The poor can contribute and help. In fact, their spiritual and emotional maturity depend on it. They have talents, time, and hearts of compassion like all of us,” he said “And each time they are included as an equal member and loved and accepted, something deep inside happens that moves them past the stereotypes of ‘those people.’”

ROYSE CITY—Thousands of international refugees are being brought to Dallas to transition into new lives. A new program, Segue, is seeking young adults undergoing their own transitions to help with that process.

The program began last summer as Eddie Walker, the owner and administrator of Sabine Creek Ranch outside Royse City, sat on a plane returning from a mission trip to China.

“What I got on the plane ride home is that it’s crazy to make trips like this if I’m not doing more at home,” he said.

Not long after that, friends from Rockwall called to ask if Walker would go with them to an apartment complex in Garland to lead a couple of songs as a part of their ministry to Bhutan refugees.

While there, Walker heard the story of these Hindu refugees who had spent the last 17 years in a refugee camp in Nepal after fleeing the ethnic cleansing in their own country.

Walker was hooked and began to learn more of their story and their struggle. The United States is slated to accept up to 60,000 Bhutanese, and up to 4,000 a year come to the Dallas area. When they arrive, they receive four months of support; then, they are on their own.

“So in these four months where they start at absolute zero—they don’t even know what the thermostat on the wall is—they have to learn English, setup a bank account, find a job, get a driver’s license. It’s like throwing them into the deep end of the pool,” Walker said. “And they are clamoring for anyone to help.”

The opportunities for ministry are unlimited, he said.

“I’ve been active in ministry and missions for basically my whole life, and I never had a clue of the need,” Walker said.

He worked closely with North American Mission Board missionaries  who serve among the Bhutanese people in North Texas.

“It’s a massive flood of people, almost too much to handle,” Walker said.

So, he began to ponder how to plug people into this ministry.

“How do you get people involved? It’s very relational. It’s not programmatic, there’s nothing to build, no project to complete,” he asked.

And the Segue initiative began to form. Walker needed a team of people who could serve on a daily basis with the refugees so that relationships could be formed as a basis for sharing the gospel.

The plan is for about 30 young adults to live dorm-style at Walker’s Sabine Creek Ranch, doing the work of missionaries during the day—helping the families register their children for school, get to doctor appointments and whatever else is needed. The term will be for the typical school year of from September to May.

Prime candidates are recent high school graduates looking for a break before college or college graduates seeking a break before beginning graduate school.

The larger group will be broken up into teams of five to six people who will take on either a people group or an apartment complex. Other than the Bhutanese, there are also refugees from Somalia, Iraq and Burma.

“The thing is, we can’t take the gospel into these countries, but God is bringing these people to our doorstep,” Walker pointed out. “They’re still plugged into their families there, so you reach a guy here and he’s able to share with his family back there. It’s an opportunity a career missionary would literally die to see.”

Rob Matchett, who has a long history working with college students, will head the program. He said the Segue program was just what he was looking for when Walker asked him to consider overseeing it.

“We were looking to do something that involved living in community and something with missions and something that would involve our kids in that kind of environment,” he said.

He said he and his wife, Misti, were considering moving with their two young children to Slovenia to work with missionary children when this opportunity came along.

“We’re going to be training people in missions whether that is going to be their career field or not, Matchett said. We’re looking to find people going into business, medicine or whatever.”

The participants will need to find their own support, estimated to be about $850 a month, which will cover their room, board and training, Matchett said.

But the rewards will be great, Walker emphasized.

“There are families coming here every day, and they are trapped in apartments watching Hispanic television that they don’t understand a word of just because the people look more like them. These people will have the opportunity to show them a better life and the love of Christ,” he said.

“They will be developing relationships that just couldn’t happen in a short-term mission trip or a summer mission opportunity. Those things are important, and I would never say they are not, but this is a special opportunity,” Walker said.

Annetta Box, a graduate of Houston Baptist University and Southwestern Seminary, is one of the three team leaders already recruited.

“I tell people that there are three things that really pulled me to Segue: One, the fields are white unto harvest and the workers are few; two, you never have to question God’s heart concerning his will for the poor and needy; and three, I never want to do anything solely for the sake of money.

“I had been praying that God would give me someone to serve that couldn’t serve me back, and there is absolutely nothing these families can do for me. They struggle to buy a bag of rice,” Box said.

For more information about Segue, call (888) 382-9877.

PLAINVIEW—Just in time for Wayland Baptist University’s centennial celebration, a unique possession of one of the school’s former presidents has returned to the campus.

A large leatherbound scrapbook once belonging to J.W. “Bill” Marshall, Wayland president from 1947 to 1953, arrived recently after being stored in a leather goods shop in Easthampton, Mass. Handtooled floral designs adorn the front cover, along with the words “Wayland College” and “J.W. Bill Marshall, President.”

The book first surfaced in late 2008 when Leon King, owner of Howie V. Leather Designs, was packing up the business in order to relocate the plant, which specializes in manufacturing motorcycle accessories.

Believing the scrapbook held some historical significance, King called on his son, Nicholas Fournier, for help.

“At this point, using the power of the Internet, I Googled ‘J.W. Bill Marshall’ and found a nice Wikipedia article about Mr. Marshall and his place in history as the president of the first four-year university to voluntarily integrate,” Fournier wrote in an e-mail explanation to Wayland. “I then figured out that what was Wayland College is now Wayland Baptist University.”

That Internet search led Fournier to the public relations office, where he informed the staff of his find and of the family’s desire to return the scrapbook to Marshall, his family or the university. Since Marshall died in 1977 with few descendents, the university wanted the book returned for its archives.

The scrapbook contains a few black and white prints, mostly images from the university such as campus buildings, a shot of administrators around a campus water well and some farmland photos.

Two photos depict groups of international students, a particular fondness of Marshall, who came to Wayland from the role as personnel secretary at the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Marshall was one of the university’s best-known presidents, having initiated a then-controversial ban on smoking on campus and later leading the integration initiative, calling it “maximum Christianity, applied as well as advocated.”

Wayland became the first four-year university in the former Confederate South to integrate voluntarily, doing so in the summer of 1951 with the admission of four black schoolteachers who needed summer coursework to maintain their certification.

His worldview changed the Wayland landscape, as he brought students of other nations to Wayland to study and influence American students with exposure to other cultures.

In a chapter from the new history book The Wayland Century, Marshall is credited with greatly promoting international relations in several ways.

“Marshall wanted to see an increased number of international students at Wayland. And he did. In 1947-48, Wayland had 12 international students. A year later, the school enrolled 22 …and by 1952, Wayland had 35 international students,” the book reads. “Marshall later recalled that at one time during his tenure, Wayland had a higher percentage (5 percent of the total student body) of international students than any other college in North America.”

Though his scrapbook may hold some mystery, Marshall’s impact on Wayland was clear, according to University Historian Estelle Owens, who compiled years of research for the history book. The international student presence affected the music department, with the International Choir formed in 1949 as Wayland’s premier performance group. Members wore costumes from overseas and sang in many languages, bringing in foreign students to help teach the words.

Marshall also led the university to its first distance-learning venture, hosting a language school in Guadalajara, Mexico, in 1948, for students and faculty members. Wayland also achieved four-year senior college status in 1948 under Marshall’s leadership, and the school nickname was changed from Jackrabbit to Pioneers.