Baptist Briefs: ABP honors BGCT

Directors of Associated Baptist Press honored the Baptist General Convention of Texas and announced a $100,000 matching-funds challenge from a Texas Baptist family during a meeting in San Antonio. The BGCT has long been one of the major financial supporters of the independent Baptist news service. Executive Editor Greg Warner announced a $100,000 matching-funds challenge from the Eula Mae and John Baugh Foundation. The foundation has promised to match all individual donations to the news service, up to $100,000, until the end of 2008. John and Eula Mae Baugh’s granddaughter, Jackie Moore of San Antonio, serves as an ABP director and on the Baugh Foundation board.

04/28/2008 - By admin

Youth ranch accepts 75 children from FLDS compound

LULING—Seventy-five children removed from a polygamist sect's ranch have been placed with Baptist Children’s Home Youth Ranch near Luling.

04/28/2008 - By admin

Autistic children enjoy art event hosted by UMHB

BELTON—For several hours on a recent Saturday, a University of Mary Hardin-Baylor gymnasium was transformed into an artists’ paradise. From pencils and paint to canvas and cardboard puzzle pieces, children with autism expressed themselves through original artwork during an Autism in Action event, sponsored by the Student Government Association of Texas State Technical College in Waco.

04/28/2008 - By admin

Vision–not just geography–unite associations

FORT WORTH—Want to know what an association looks like? Don’t use a still camera, because the image and functions are constantly changing as associations try to be what the churches they serve need them to be, said Tarrant Baptist Association Director of Missions Tom Law. And to fit all the churches into the same window will take a wide-angle lens—a very wide-angle lens.

“I think the association we have been familiar with is going to change drastically over the next few years,” Law said. But change is nothing new for associations, he explained.

04/28/2008 - By George Henson

Around the State: Three Texas missionaries appointed

• Five people with Texas ties were among the 92 missionaries appointed by the International Mission Board in an April 9 ceremony at First Church in Sunnyvale.

04/28/2008 - By John Rutledge

Amazon people groups remain unreached

RICHMOND, Va. (BP) —Weary travelers stand alongside a river somewhere in South America’s Amazon Basin.

After three hours of trying to maneuver upstream by motorboat to a remote village, Southern Baptist International Mission Board missionaries grudgingly accept the realization that the day’s journey has ended.

Shallow waters, exposed rocks, tree limbs and a rough current that nearly capsized the boat won’t allow them to go any farther.

Score a victory for the Amazon.

04/28/2008 - By admin

Duo encounters bugs, mud, ‘mixed-up beliefs’ in Amazon Basin

RICHMOND, Va. (BP)—Pat Townsend admits she’s living outside her comfort zone. Between the bugs, mud and freezing showers, Townsend, a missionary with the Southern Baptist International Mission Board’s Masters Program, admits it could take her awhile to adjust to life in and around the Amazon Basin of South America.

04/28/2008 - By admin

Younger leaving Broadway

FORT WORTH (ABP)—Brett Younger, pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, survived a vote to fire him last month but is leaving the church anyway—to become associate professor of preaching at Mercer University’s McAfee School of Theology in Atlanta.

04/24/2008 - By admin

‘Future Focus Committee’ named

DALLAS—A committee has been formed to study the long-range future of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

Stephen Hatfield, pastor of First Baptist Church in Lewisville, and Andy Pittman, pastor of First Baptist Church in Lufkin, will jointly chair the committee.

04/24/2008 - By admin

Hispanic gathering stresses unity

SAN ANTONIO—Unity and equipping Christians for evangelism and discipleship took the spotlight at a regional Hispanic Baptist Convocation of the Laity gathering in San Antonio.

Baldemar Borrego, president of the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas, stressed the importance of promoting unity among Hispanic Baptists.

“We are one brotherhood,” Borrego said. He emphasized depending on God for the individual, inner change necessary to “make a difference in the city.”

04/24/2008 - By admin

Richmond seminary budget shortfall leads to faculty layoffs

RICHMOND, Va. (ABP)—Faced with “worrisome” financial challenges, Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond will downsize its faculty and staff, the school’s president announced.

Four full-time professors and at least three administrative staff members will be let go in an effort to reduce costs, said seminary President Ron Crawford, who was elected to his position about a year ago.

04/17/2008 - By admin

Showing God’s love to Mexican orphans

Jillian Daniels from the University of North Texas plays with a group in children in Reynosa, Mexico, during a spring break ministry trip.

04/04/2008 - By admin