DALLAS—To bridge the spiritual and cultural gaps in churches and ministries, Christians first need bridge gaps in their thinking and realign their thoughts with the Bible, speakers told the Texas Baptist Men fall convention.

John SnyderObvious problems in churches may be symptoms of less-obvious deeper issues, said John Snyder, pastor of Christ Church in New Albany, Miss. He compared American evangelicals to people sitting in a room who look at a nearby wall and notice a crack running through it. While their initial response is to “spackle and paint” the problem, that will not fix the underlying issue, he said.

“If the crack is caused by a foundational problem, you know the crack will just reappear again and again and again,” Snyder explained. Similarly, “if we don’t deal primarily with the spiritual gap, then everything we do becomes shallow, and our efforts become ineffective.”

Dealing with root issues

Snyder acknowledged finding “time and spiritual energy to stop and deal with the root issues that lie at the bottom of our spiritual gaps” can be difficult.

Henry BlackabyBut it’s something the people of God have to do, said Henry Blackaby, co-author of the Experiencing God discipleship curriculum.

“God doesn’t make suggestions,” Blackaby said. God gives commands that serve as the foundation of a Christian’s life and ministry.

“How would you describe your life?” he asked. “Do you diligently seek to understand what Christ has commanded and then diligently seek to practice in your life everything that he has commanded? We call him ‘Lord’ but often do not do anything that he commands us.”

And that’s where gaps form, speakers agreed.

To fix these gaps, Snyder said, Christians and ministries often respond in one of two ways— “conservatism” or “relativism.”

Christian conservatives see a moral decline and think the answer is to erect more rules and standards, but that cannot “fix the nation,” he said. The solution involves more than rules and regulations, Snyder insisted. It requires falling in love with the person of God, with his truth and with his way.

Christian relativism

On the flip side, Christian relativists try to “save the world by relating to the world,” Snyder said. They think they’re not making an impact on people in the world because non-Christians can’t relate to them.

“The question is: When we get everyone to attend our relativistic churches, does God ever attend?” Synder asked. “There is one person you cannot afford to be irrelevant to—it’s God. Everyone else is optional.”

Ministries may need “radical work,” but the work doesn’t necessarily call for “extreme changes,” he asserted.

“The problem with extreme changes is, they’re never extreme enough,” Synder said. “I could grow a soul patch. I could change the way I talk. But if I only change the exterior, I haven’t really done what’s necessary to make a lasting change.”

Christians need to go deeper to find the root issue, which originates in their thinking, “because who you think God to be will determine everything about how you carry out your ministry,” he said.

Many Christians allow a gap to exist between their concept of who God is and what the Bible says about him, he continued. So, they limit God in their minds.

Getting to know God

“Like Job, we all need to be introduced to God in a way that radically alters us,” Snyder said. “Your job is to get to know God. Get to know him better than you know anybody else.”

The good news is there doesn’t have to be a gap, he added, though there often is “a normal gap” in one’s life as God leads them and teaches them by the Spirit.

“Sadly, because we’re not perfect, there is a gap between what he’s teaching us and where we’re at,” he said.

He recommended each Christian engage in the “methodical lifelong task” of “searching through the Bible, getting those truths out and dusting them off … and then finding a way to apply them to my life, my home, ministry and service.”

ARLINGTON—Neither Baptist progressives nor fundamentalists have the right to lay exclusive claim to the legacy of B.H. Carroll, two church historians told a fall colloquy sponsored by a theological institute that bears Carroll’s name.

Baptists who view Carroll only as a conservative controversialist or solely as the founder of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary paint an incomplete portrait of a pastor/theologian and mentor to future denominational leaders, said Alan Lefever, director of the Texas Baptist Historical Collection and author of Fighting the Good Fight: The Life and Work of B.H. Carroll, and Jim Spivey, senior fellow and professor of church history at the B.H. Carroll Theological Institute.

Alan Lefever“B.H. Carroll was a very complex man” who defied easy categorization, Lefever said in his biographical sketch of Carroll.

As a young adult, Carroll rejected Christianity. His bitterness toward the church—and God—grew after his first marriage ended in divorce due to his wife’s infidelity.

“He went to a dark place,” Lefever said, noting how Carroll volunteered for the riskiest missions available in the Confederate army, and he publicly refuted the chaplains’ sermons. “He preached against God in the Confederate army camps and attracted larger crowds than the chaplains.”

After suffering severe wounds in battle at Mansfield, La., he returned to Caldwell, where he attended a Methodist camp meeting at his mother’s insistence. Due to the sermon he heard that night and his reading of a copy of Pilgrim’s Progress his mother gave him, Carroll converted to Christianity in the fall 1865 and felt God’s call to preach. The following May, Caldwell Baptist Church licensed him to the gospel ministry, and the church ordained him in November 1866.

B. H. Carroll, a towering figure in Baptist history, was also a complex personality.After preaching at several churches and serving as pastor of a couple of churches, he accepted a call from First Baptist Church in Waco in 1870 to assist Pastor Rufus C. Burleson, who also served as president of Baylor University. When Burleson left the church a few months later to devote his full attention to the university, the church called Carroll as pastor, a position he held nearly 28 years.

For most of that time, he served a mentor and teacher to young ministerial students, created an “embryonic seminary” that met at the church and established the Bible department at Baylor University, Lefever noted.

The Whitsitt Controversy

“He was, in many ways, a progressive theological educator,” he said—a fact ignored by many Baptist historians east of the Mississippi who focus solely on Carroll’s involvement in the so-called “Whitsitt controversy.”

William H. Whitsitt, third president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, denied the popular Landmark Baptist notion of Baptist succession—the belief Baptists could trace their heritage through a “trail of blood” by martyrs all the way back to apostolic times. He also noted early English Baptists did not practice baptism by immersion until 1641.

Although Carroll believed in Baptist succession, he viewed Whitsitt’s beliefs on Baptist succession as “not a doctrinal issue, but an issue of human history,” Lefever insisted. However, as a member of the school’s board, Carroll argued the seminary needed to be accountable to the churches of the convention, a position that failed to prevail.

So, he announced at the 1898 Southern Baptist Convention in Norfolk, Va., his intent to recommend at the 1899 SBC a motion to sever the seminary from the convention. In time, Whitsitt resigned under pressure.

Many Baptist historians outside Texas have maligned Carroll unfairly as “a Landmarker,” when he actually rejected several key Landmark Baptist beliefs—particularly regarding cooperation in missions, Lefever asserted. He specifically noted Carroll’s role in rallying support for the SBC’s Home Mission Board and his opposition to T.P. Crawford’s Gospel Mission Movement, which attacked the SBC Foreign Mission Board.

“If he was a Landmarker, he was a denominational Landmarker—and that doesn’t make sense,” he said.

Complex personality

The complexity of Carroll’s personality also appears in his impact as mentor to two widely divergent figures—George W. Truett, the pre-eminent Baptist statesman and denominational loyalist in the first half of the 20th century, and J. Frank Norris, the father of Fundamentalist Baptists, Lefever said.

“B.H. Carroll could be seen as Patient Zero of the SBC controversy” that divided the convention in the 1980s and 1990s, he insisted. Both the moderate “Truett strain” and the fundamentalist “Norris strain” found a common source and inspiration in Carroll, he noted.

Jim SpiveySpivey likewise emphasized Carroll’s complexity, asserting historians need to give due attention to “the two B.H. Carrolls—the extroverted controversialist and the introverted unifier.”

Carroll left a multifaceted legacy as a pastor/theologian, denominational leader, innovative educator and mentor, he said.

“He became a truly larger-than-life personality who cast a very long shadow and whose abiding influence endured long past his death,” Spivey said.

Carroll’s role in creating institutions—most notably Southwestern Seminary—grew out of his love for churches, and he never ceased to view himself first as a preacher of the gospel who wanted to help equip other ministers, he said.

“Beginning with thousands of students he himself trained at Baylor and tens of thousands more who attended the seminary he established, innumerable churches, mission fields, and seminaries on those fields around the globe have been touched by his educational vision, which is still alive among Texas Baptists,” he said.

Observers today should take care not to view Carroll as “the fountainhead of traditions he did not support,” Spivey insisted.

An independent thinker

“His theology was Calvinistic, but he was not a doctrinaire Calvinist with a dogmatic agenda. He believed in the fundamentals of the Christian faith, but he was not a Fundamentalist with a narrow and judgmental spirit. He believed in the plenary verbal inspiration of Scripture, but he never used inerrancy as a political weapon. … He was a true guardian of Scripture who spoke with conviction and certainty, but he was not blinded by narrow-mindedness,” Spivey said.

“He was an independent thinker who pursued the truth wherever it led, and he encouraged students to do the same. He knew the difference between indoctrination and education, and he preferred the latter.”

PRAIRIE HILL—Fred Sain has filled the same pulpit 65 years. More importantly, he has been pastor of Prairie Hill Baptist Church in the truest sense of the word.

Sain grew up attending First Baptist Church in Slaton, where he father owned a cotton gin.

Prarie Hill Baptist Church draws worshippers from Mart, Waco, Groesbeck, Mexia, Mount Calm and other small communities in addition to Prairie Hill, population 125.“At about 14 years old, I began to feel an inclination that I needed to do something more for the Lord in my life. I surrendered to preach when I was 15,” he recalled.

Soon after he began attending Wayland Baptist College in Plainview at age 17, he was called to be the pastor of McClung Baptist Church near Lubbock.

“I preached there about a year and a half, and the Lord began to bless my ministry, and I began to learn what it was to preach,” he said. About the same time, however, he felt God leading him to attend Baylor University.

A trial sermon in 1949

In August 1949, Prairie Hill Baptist Church northeast of Waco invited him to preach a trial sermon. He already had committed to preach a revival for another congregation, but Sain preached his first sermon as pastor of the Prairie Hill congregation Sept. 25, 1949.

“From the time of my calling, I told the Lord I would serve wherever he had for me to serve, and evidently it has pleased him for me to stay here these years. I don’t know that I’ve been here longer than anyone else has, but I’ve been here more than half the life of the church, because it is 129 years old,” Sain said.

Church members helped celebrate with Pastor Fred Sain on his birthday in July. (Photo: Prairie Hill Facebook page)“This has always been a strong church. When I came here, there were eight to 10 churches around here in about a 10-mile radius, but they’re all gone. We’ve been the only one that’s stayed, and I believe it was because I was here preaching the word. I’ve almost given up several times, but in the last two years, we’ve had 20 new members come into our church.”

Not many people live in the rural community anymore, but Prairie Hill draws people from a wide area—Mart, Waco, Groesbeck, Mexia, Mount Calm and other small communities in addition to Prairie Hill, population 125.

In thinking of the several adults he has baptized in recent months, he said, “The Lord has been smiling on our work here, and I appreciate that.”

Continuing to learn

Even after all these years, God still teaches him new things from Scripture, Sain said.

“It’s been my habit for years to start my morning by spending an hour with the Lord and his word. I’m still finding things I didn’t know were there. It’s a blessing for me to continue to study,” he said.

While he has no plans to leave Prairie Hill, it has crossed his mind from time to time.

“I’ve thought several times I needed to step down. They had a big celebration here when I reached my 50th anniversary, and I think everybody thought I was about ready to retire, but here I’ve been another 15 years. As long as my strength holds out and the Lord affirms my ministry here, I’ll stay. But I’ll be the first one to leave when I see I’m encumbering the church,” he said.

“We have a very loving church. The two rules of my ministry have been to be faithful and magnify love. We don’t have squabbles and problems in our church—everyone seems to be happy and love one another, and they love their church. We’re not a great, huge church, but we are carrying on the Lord’s work.”

Prairie Hill Baptist Church has a large cemetery within yards of the its back door, and Pastor Sain has preached about 500 funerals. (Photo: George Henson)Prairie Hill Baptist Church has a large cemetery within yards of the its back door, and it has been a large part of Sain’s ministry.

“Since I’ve been here, I’ve preached in the neighborhood of 500 funerals,” he said.

He also has officiated at about same number of weddings. He has preached more than 5,000 times at Prairie Hill. And each preaching experience has been different, he added.

Even after all those sermons, Sain said, he comes to church each Sunday with a sense of excitement and expectation.

“Enthusiasm is something I think a pastor needs to have. If he’s not enthused in what he’s called to do, he needs to get in another line of work,” he said.

‘The best is yet to be’

He credits that positive outlook to his literature professor at Baylor University many years ago who began each class with a verse from Robert Browning: “Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be.”

That’s his prayer for Prairie Hill Baptist Church. “God hasn’t accidently kept us here. It’s been for a purpose,” Sain said.

At age 85, Sain looks forward to being reunited with many of the saints who have preceded him to heaven during his 65 years as pastor.

“I’ve told them many times, when I get to heaven, the first thing I’m going to do is ask permission to have a meeting of the Prairie Hill Baptist Church,” he said. “And I’m sure I’ll preach my best sermon when we all get together. And we’ll have a good time.”

BOIS D’ARC—A heart for people near and far keeps the century-old Bois D’Arc Baptist Church connected to missions and active as ever.

Pastor Mike Drinkard leads a stable congregation, halfway between Athens and Palestine. All the members of the pulpit committee who recommended the church to call him as pastor in 1978 still attend.

Bois D’Arc Baptist Church members renovated homes as part of a World Changers project in 2011 in West Memphis, Ark.“The church’s strongest characteristic is that it is a missions-minded church—of course on a small scale, since we’re a small, rural church,” he said. “We give 25 percent of our offerings and tithes to various missions causes.”

About half of the church’s missions gifts are directed through Baptists’ Cooperative Program unified budget, and the remainder support ministries to which the congregation has a personal connection.

The church is not afraid to give sacrificially. When Drinkard took a trip to Peru to visit his sister who is a missionary there, the poverty he saw burdened him.

“When I came back, I told the church: ‘We’ve got to help those people. They are so poor. They don’t even have shoes, Bibles or anything.’ We had started a fund to build a multipurpose building with several thousand dollars in it, and I said, ‘As far as I’m concerned, we ought to empty that fund out and send all that money to Peru.’ And they voted to do it,” he recalled.

That devotion to missions keeps the congregation from becoming too inwardly focused, Drinkard said.

“They just want to concentrate on the Great Commission,” he said.

The church members emptied a fund they had established to build a multipurpose building and, instead, sent the money to Peru.

But missions means more than writing a check for the Bois D’Arc congregation. The East Texas church that draws about 100 in attendance each week has sent teams to 18 countries, from Peru to the Ukraine.

“Those mission trips open their eyes. They come back, and they want to do more. They realize how blessed we are. They want to do more; they want to give more,” he said.

Mission trips not only involve the church’s youth group. Senior adults participate in mission trips, as well, particularly focusing on Operation Christmas Child. The ministry of Samaritan’s Purse collects shoeboxes filled with toys, other small gifts and a gospel presentation and delivers them to children in developing nations.

Now Operation Christmas Child has a processing center in the Dallas-Fort Worth area where the senior adults have volunteered, but for years, the group spent a week at a processing center in North Carolina, making sure children around the world learned of God’s love for them.

In addition, the congregation fills 600 shoeboxes of its own to aid the ministry, collecting items for the boxes all year and culminating in a churchwide packing party the first Wednesday night each November. The children who attend Vacation Bible School pay the shipping charges—usually about $4,500—for the boxes with their offerings each year.

“It’s amazing what 100 kids can do, because every year, they raise that money during Bible school,” Drinkard said. “We try to teach our children—our RAs and GAs—about missions, and about how children around the world need Jesus.”

The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor is developing a doctor of physical therapy degree program in partnership with Baylor Scott & White Health. The collaborative partnership will give UMHB doctor of physical therapy students the opportunity to interact with physicians, therapists and nurses daily, and it will help facilitate a collaborative learning environment with health-care professionals across Central Texas. Doctor of physical therapy faculty and Baylor Scott & White faculty also will collaborate on research projects. While the program will start on the UMHB campus, the university plans to build a permanent home for the program on the Baylor Scott & White campus in Temple. UMHB anticipates a fall semester 2015 start date and is accepting applications, with the first round of conditional acceptances beginning this month. The deadline for applying to the program is March 31, 2015. The program start date is contingent on achieving candidacy status through the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools—the university’s regional accrediting agency—also must approve the program.

Del Risco named Texas Baptist Hispanic evangelism director. Joshua del RiscoJoshua del Risco, a former Oklahoma Baptist pastor and coordinator for the North American Mission Board’s church mobilization team, was named director of Hispanic evangelism and associate director of evangelism for the Baptist General Convention of Texas, effective Nov. 3. He was pastor of Living Word Hispanic Baptist Church in Oklahoma City from 1995 to 2001. He served with NAMB in various capacities from 2001 to 2014. He and his wife, Esther, have two grown sons, Andrew and Timothy.

Baylor receives naming gift for Robbins College of Health and Human Sciences. William K. and Mary Jo Robbins, members of Tallowood Baptist Church in Houston, provided Baylor University a major gift for its newest academic unit focused on health-related education and research—the Robbins College of Health and Human Sciences. He is founder and CEO of Houston-based North American Corp. She served 27 years in the nursing profession, and she opened and managed 10 dialysis facilities in Texas. Baylor regents established the College of Health and Human Sciences last May, uniting four health-related academic units—communication sciences and disorders; family and consumer sciences; health, human performance and recreation; and the Louise Herrington School of Nursing.

Baylor adds doctoral program in environmental science. Baylor University regents approved a new Ph.D. program in environmental science, beginning in January 2015. Core specialty areas will include environmental health, environmental chemistry and toxicology. In 2014, Baylor produced 28 Ph.D. graduates in STEM—science, technology, engineering and math—fields. By 2019, the university expects it will award 44 STEM doctoral degrees.

MIDLOTHIAN—I Am Second held the premiere showing of its first 45-minute documentary at First Baptist Church in Midlothian. But unlike many of the ministry’s previous projects, the film did not feature a celebrity’s Christian testimony. Rather, it told a “story of hope” involving a 13-year-old boy who died of cancer the month before.

Many are the Wonders: The Second Story of Ethan Hallmark, focuses not only on Ethan Hallmark is prepped for a cancer treatment at Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort WorthEthan, but also on his mother, father, friends and the difference one young man’s four-year battle with stage-4 neuroblastoma had on his community.

After being contacted by a minister in Midlothian, I Am Second dispatched a staff member to see if Ethan’s story might be right for one of the five-minute videos shown at iamsecond.com. The videos follow a simple format—a camera trained on a single individual in a white chair telling his or her Christian testimony.

“We were just blown away from the manner in which God has worked through Ethan and the family over these four years. It’s been incredible how from what started out to be just a devastating situation for the family and for him, God had grown the family,” said John Humphrey, director of communications for I Am Second.

Ethan Hallmark greets teams participating in a Midlothian high school football game.“The more we delved into the story, the more layers came about. We said: ‘We have to do something different. This is not just a five-minute white-chair film. We have to tell this differently.’”

The ministry’s budget didn’t include funds for a longer film, but people from Midlothian raised the extra money needed to produce it.

The documentary pictures the Hallmark family in their home and follows Ethan to the hospital. Ethan does sit in the white chair used in other I Am Second videos, but so do his mother and father, Rachel and Matt Hallmark.

The nature of the video and the length of the relationship offered the I Am Second personnel a level of emotional intimacy that doesn’t usually occur, Humphrey said.

“We’ve gotten to know this family well. We have hurt with them, rejoiced with them, cried with them. And we don’t usually get to do that, particularly with a celebrity Second. This is probably the deepest relationship we’ve been able to establish with a family,” he said.

Ethan Hallmark with his parents.That emotional intimacy and the seriousness of the situation caused the producers to confront some hard questions during the process of making the film.

“At each step, we were presented with all sorts of decisions—how to involve the family, how to be sensitive to their needs, how to be sensitive with the opportunity. We would ask ourselves, ‘Are we being too selfish in taking this story and using it in our movement when it is their story?’ At every step of the way as we prayed about it, we felt God urging us to go ahead but also consulted with the Hallmarks. And every step of the way, they said, ‘We just want God to use Ethan’s story,’” Humphrey recalled.

“Ethan loved God with his whole heart. The hope he had stemmed from that,” Matt Hallmark said. “He was a kid who truly lived out his faith.”

That faith was a gift from God, he added.

“It came from God. I know that’s cliché, but it’s true. It’s not because of us. We’re not special parents or anything. We’re just regular parents. But God gave him an amazing spirit,” he said.

“It would not surprise us at any point in the day to walk in and see him sitting there with his Bible, reading it. I don’t care where he’s at—at the hospital, at a soccer game, at home, at school. That’s Ethan.”

The large crowd who attended the premiere of the documentary “means Ethan’s cancer is not wasted. A lot of people get cancer. A lot of people suffer. It’s what you do with it, who’s benefitting from it,” Hallmark said.

The video proves hope is possible even in horrific circumstances, Rachel Hallmark observed.

“A lot of people would say that’s a story of despair. This poor child has only lived to the age of 13. He’s not going to get to grow up; he’s not going to get to go to high school; he’s not going to get married. I guess by worldly standards, that’s a story of despair,” she said.

Ethan Hallmark prepares for a session of chemotherapy.“Ethan never saw it that way, and surely, neither did we. Don’t get me wrong. We’re heartbroken that he is gone. We’re heartbroken that he had to spend a third of his life fighting cancer. But it ultimately is and always has been a story of hope.

“One of his pet peeves was for people to say, ‘It’s OK to be angry at God. This is a horrible disease. It’s OK to be angry every once in a while.’ He would tell me: ‘Mom, why do they say that to me? How could I be angry? I know God loves me. I don’t like this cancer. I’m upset I have to go through surgery, chemo and radiation, but I could never be angry at God.’”

Through the film, Ethan’s Christian testimony of hope will be shared long after his death, and that is important to the Hallmarks.

“It allows us to see the good even in the ashes,” Matt Hallmark said. “It’s being able to see that even though Ethan suffered, even though he died, people are still coming to know the Lord. People are still getting closer, getting intimate with God because Ethan endured.”

A former president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas and former CEO of Buckner International involuntarily has become a former senior vice president of Baylor University.

Ken Hall, who has served as senior vice president for development and strategic initiatives at Baylor since January 2013, “no longer will be serving at Baylor,” President Ken Starr announced in a letter to the university’s faculty and staff.

Hall ceased to be employed by Baylor at the conclusion of homecoming weekend, Starr wrote in a Nov. 4 letter announcing the “unfortunate news.”

No reason given

In his letter, Starr offered no reason for Hall’s dismissal. Lori Fogleman, assistant vice president for media communications at Baylor, said the university does not comment on personnel matters.

“I was notified Friday afternoon (Oct. 31) that my services no longer would be needed,” Hall said, adding he received official written notice Monday, Nov. 3, and he was terminated without cause. “It’s been a wonderful couple of years at Baylor, and I am grateful for the experience. The judge (Starr) obviously felt he needed to go in another direction.”

Hall served on the 10-member presidential search advisory committee that helped bring Starr to the university. Starr also noted Hall’s time as a BGCT-elected member of Baylor’s board of regents “where he served with great distinction” before accepting the senior vice president’s position.

“He has been a wise counselor to all his executive council colleagues, especially in regard to Texas Baptist life,” Starr wrote. “He effectively reorganized and refocused our university development office, and his energy and creativity have helped Baylor reach historic milestones in private giving. In short, Ken Hall has made a positive and enduring impact on Baylor University. For his many talents and his able service to Baylor University, we are immensely grateful.”

‘Wonderful experience’

Hall expressed appreciation to his colleagues on Baylor’s executive council and the university’s development staff.

“It’s been a wonderful experience,” Hall said. “Baylor is a great, great place doing kingdom business.”

Hall served as president and CEO of Buckner International from 1994 to 2010 and as CEO there from 2010 until his retirement in April 2012.

He was elected to a one-year term as BGCT president in 2003.

A Louisiana native, Hall earned a bachelor of science degree from the University of Texas at Tyler and master of divinity and doctor of ministry degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth. He also is an honorary alumnus of Baylor’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary and received an honorary doctor of divinity degree from Dallas Baptist University.

Hall and his wife, Linda, have two grown children, Kevin and Kayce.

WACO—Many mental-health disorders first surface during adolescence, and college and youth pastors are in a good position to offer help or steer youths where they can find it. But many of those ministers feel unprepared to recognize and deal with mental illness, a Baylor University study revealed.

The study of Texas ministers—“Adolescent Mental Health: The Role of Youth and College Pastors”—is published in the journal Mental Health, Religion & Culture.

Matthew S. StanfordUnlike many senior pastors, ministers who work with young people are expected to have more extensive contact with their congregants outside of church services, researchers said. Because youth groups are smaller than the congregations themselves, a greater chance exists for deep relationships between ministers and adolescents, through one-on-one counseling, Bible-study groups, mission trips and service opportunities, said researcher Matthew S. Stanford, professor of psychology and neuroscience at Baylor University.

William Hunter, a doctoral candidate of clinical psychology at Baylor, served as co-researcher on the study, which involved 94 youth and college pastors representing churches ranging in size from 45 to 8,000 members. Churches were located in Abilene, Austin, College Station, the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Houston, Lubbock, Midland, San Antonio, the Temple-Killeen area and Waco.

The survey showed:

• 50 percent said they had received training related to mental illness, but only 26 percent reported they felt qualified to work with young people dealing with significant mental health issues.

• 78.7 percent had worked with one to 10 adolescents a year whom they knew or thought had mental health issues.

• 76 percent had referred an adolescent congregant to a Christian counselor, a psychologist or a psychiatrist, but pastors who made referrals were most likely to do so to a Christian counselor.

Youth pastors ranked depression as the most prevalent mental health issue they have seen among youths, followed by pornography, grief/bereavement, anxiety, aggression/anger, sexual behavior, alcohol/drug abuse, ADHD, emotional abuse, eating disorders, stress from having a family member with a mental health issue, domestic or spousal abuse, juvenile delinquency, gender identity, sexual assault/abuse and physical abuse.

Lack of training

The study showed youth and college pastors’ most common method of intervention was to meet with the adolescent and refer the individual to a mental-health professional. While many of the pastors described using biblical counseling methods, some counseled primarily with psychological concepts, using such methods as talking through coping skills or role-playing.

The sample of youth pastors showed they believe psychological well-being affects spiritual development. But they lacked training and confidence to interact with the mental-health system, and some tensions and conflicts exist between pastors and mental-health professionals.

Unique role as gatekeeper

A youth pastor’s “unique role as gatekeeper can be improved,” and pastors are interested in knowing more about counseling, researchers said. Many are unaware of mental health professionals with whom to work and did not know what psychotherapy would entail—including time, cost and scope of services.

Researchers recommended mental health professionals working with religious youths consider the role of the youth pastor and reach out to faith communities to collaborate.

“Outreach will allow the pastor and mental health professional to gain an understanding of the other while becoming familiar with each other’s ‘language’ and view of mental health,” researchers said.

Volunteers with the Texas Baptist Men water ministry recently drilled wells and donated equipment to church leaders in Nigeria, and they laid the groundwork for drilling wells at a mountainous area in India.

Harold Patterson (center) of Northeast Texas Disaster Response explains the operation of a portable well-drilling rig to Fred Posey with Walking in Love Ministries while Phil Davenport (kneeling) and Kathy Patterson work on a well during a trip to Nigeria. (PHOTO/Courtesy of Walking in Love Ministries)Harold and Kathy Patterson from First Baptist Church in Winnsboro, directors of Northeast Texas Disaster Response, and Phil Davenport from First Baptist Church in Garland represented TBM’s water ministry on a 12-person volunteer team to Nigeria assembled by Walking in Love Ministries.

“In the process, there were a lot of decisions made for the Living Water himself,” said Mary Kay Posey, who grew up as a missionary kid in Nigeria and founded the Forney-based Walking in Love Ministries with her husband, Fred.

Other volunteers trained Nigerian church leaders in the Experiencing God discipleship curriculum and in the Royal Ambassadors missions program for boys. Three health-care specialists also taught at a nursing school.

TBM volunteers drilled wells at a seminary and a church using a small portable rig Patterson designed. They also trained local volunteers to drill a well at another church. Although the walls of one well proved unstable due to swampy conditions, two of the three wells will continue to provide clean water for up to 5,000 people, Harold Patterson said.

New Christians were baptized in a river near Eku, Nigeria, after a recent mission trip involving volunteers with Texas Baptist Men and Walking in Love Ministries. (PHOTO/Courtesy of Walking in Love Ministries)“We left the well-drilling rig there and trained a team of Nigerians how to use and maintain it,” he said. “Before we left, two chiefs came with requests for 10 more locations for the team to start drilling.”

Nine days after he returned home from the trip to Nigeria, Patterson left with another team for a water ministry project among the Tangkhul—a Mongolian people group—in Ukhrul, India.

Unfortunately, the drilling equipment TBM had shipped to India was not released from customs in New Delhi until the day before the well-drilling team returned to the United States.

However, the delay gave Patterson and Bob Young from The Heights Church in Richardson ample opportunity to spend time with Baptists in Ukhrul and build relationships with church leaders.

“The spiritual part of the trip couldn’t have been better,” Patterson said.

The TBM volunteers identified five locations for drilling, as well as local volunteers they plan to train when they return to India.

“We’re already planning another trip there when the water table is a little lower,” Patterson said.

In the meantime, TBM water ministry volunteers will travel to Nicaragua to pump out, recharge and chlorinate wells polluted by flooding. The wells serve villages where Meskito Indians live.

Pastor Randall Worley has found a way to blend his passions for preaching and painting to spread the gospel.

Worley has conducted weeklong art camps at Prairie Creek Baptist Church in Plano the last two years, with participants ranging from middle school students to adults in their 40s.

While preaching through the Old Testament book of Jonah, Randall Worley, pastor of Prairie Creek Baptist Church in Plano, took the wood from pallets and nailed it to plywood and then painted scenes from the book on his newly created rough-hewn canvas. (PHOTOS/George Henson)“I wanted to teach something about art in terms of technique. I’m interested in more than the ‘paint-what-you-feel’ approach that for most people just turns out to be a big mess. I want to teach techniques and concepts that can actually improve skill level. So, I try to think of that, but I also try to think of some way the project can build the church and benefit the church,” he explained.

In the first camp, Worley taught color theory, and participants painted tiles to create a multi-paneled mural of Jesus interacting with children.

“I thought we could use something that would decorate and communicate that we love our children and Jesus does, too,” Worley said.

This year, the camp focused on design. Around the theme “Portraits of Grace,” participants took photographs they then used as the basis of pencil-drawn portraits of individuals who demonstrated different aspects of the “multifaceted glory of God.” Those portraits now adorn a wall at Prairie Creek Church.

One of the winners of an art contest sponsored by Prairie Creek Baptist Church in Plano. The church also held an art contest this year to go along with Worley’s sermon series titled “The Death of God”—based on Mark 14-16—that included several entries from artists outside the church. The church paid $1,500 for the winning entry, which included the church retaining the piece for display. Any artist whose work did not win first prize was allowed to sell it to anyone interested in buying it.

Worley hopes it will become an annual event.

He wanted more than some really fine art. He provided the notes for his 11 sermons to the artists, so they would have a good biblical foundation as the inspiration for the pieces.

“I’m always thinking of ways for us to connect with our community,” he said. “As I thought about my passions and what I bring to table, I thought one of the ways we can connect with the community is through the arts.

“Most churches don’t make that a point of priority, so I thought maybe that was a point of connection we could build on. Being an artist, I knew that I would have loved to have something like an art show that I could have participated in.”

Art has been a key component of his life as long as he can remember.

Another winning entry of an art contest sponsored by Prairie Creek Baptist Church in Plano.“I was always good at art from a very young age, and something I just really enjoyed doing,” Worley recalled.

As a teenager, he thought art would be his vocation.

“But when God called me, that took me a different direction,” he said. “I was 15 when God called me to preach, and it was definitely not something I felt equipped to do. So the struggle was not that I was giving up art, but that I just didn’t feel I was capable of preaching.”

While he knew he eventually would go to seminary to prepare for ministry, he pursued an undergraduate fine arts degree in painting. His father, a missionary in Spain, always encouraged his children to use all their talents for the glory of God, and so Worley felt it was important to develop his skills as an artist as well.

“This church, when I got here, had so many undecorated walls that I felt there was a lot I could do here,” he said with a smile.

Worley’s artistic influence also is felt on a more frequent basis through other avenues.

“Since I’ve been here, I’ve designed our bulletin covers to go along with the sermons I’m preaching, as well as any posters,” he explained.

One section of a mural depicting Jesus interacting with children, created by art camp participants.He also uses art as a backdrop for his sermons. While preaching through the book of Jonah, he took the wood from pallets and nailed it to plywood and then painted scenes from the book on his newly created rough-hewn canvas.

“I’ve always felt we as evangelicals tend to neglect the visual arts. I think we’re pretty good at using music in worship, but maybe as a response to the excesses of iconography and the idolatry that is often attached to that—where the artwork becomes the object of worship—we go to the opposite extreme and don’t hardly use it at all,” Worley said.

“I think it is important to use all that we have to glorify God. Art is a medium of communication. Like you can preach a sermon, you can create artwork that is thought-provoking and challenging and communicates a message.”

The following information is provided in compliance with the bylaws of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Nominations to be considered by messengers to the BGCT annual meeting, Nov. 16-18 in Waco, are presented by the Committee on Committees, Committee to Nominate Executive Board Directors and the Committee on Nominations for Boards of Affiliated Ministries.

Report from the Committee on Committees

Committee on Nominations for Boards of Affiliated Ministries

2017 Term

Carmen Estrada, First Baptist Church, El Paso

Brian Hill, First Baptist Church, Littlefield

Linda James, First Baptist Church, Palestine

Frances Jordan, The Fort Bend Church, Sugar Land

Helen Reese, First Baptist Church, Cuero

2016 Term

Heather Thielemann, First Baptist Church, Brenham

2015 Term

Al Childs, Park Cities Baptist Church, Dallas

Kay Smith, First Baptist Church, Ballinger

Committee to Nominate Executive Board Directors

2017 Term

James Freeman, Trinity Baptist Church, Harker Heights

Virginia Kreimeyer, Austin Baptist Church, Austin

Laura Shirey, First Baptist Church, Canton

Steven Young, The Cross Church, Tyler

2015 Term

Doug Simon, Inglewood Baptist Church, Grand Prairie

Report from the Committee to Nominate Executive Board Directors

New Executive Board Director Nominees

2017 Term

Howard Anderson, Singing Hills Baptist Church, Dallas

Donald Bean, Calvary Baptist Church, Nederland

Donna Burney, First Baptist Church, Woodway

Buford Duff, First Baptist Church, Levelland

Michael Evans, Bethlehem Baptist Church, Mansfield

Zelma Irons, Colonial Hills Baptist Church, Snyder

Annette Miller, First Baptist Church, Lewisville

Dana Moore, Second Baptist Church, Corpus Christi

Gene Payne, Eastern Hills Baptist Church, Garland

Jimmy Reynolds, Trinity Baptist Church, Mt. Pleasant

Directors to be Nominated for Second Term

2017 Term

Troy Allen, First Baptist Church, College Station

Betty Arrell, Austin Baptist Church, Austin

Kenneth Barnes, Gambrell Street Baptist Church, Fort Worth

Alfredo Benavides, Iglesia Bautista Stonegate, Alice

Nathan Buchanan, First Baptist Church, Mineral Wells

John Crowe, River Bend Baptist Church, Fulshear

Chuck Crowson, First Baptist Church, Lufkin

Pam Davis-Duck, First Metro Church, Houston

Doug Diehl, Crossroads Baptist Church, San Antonio

Wendy Frizzell, Southern Oaks Baptist Church, Tyler

Mike Harkrider, First Baptist Church, Boerne

Stephen Jackson, Central Baptist Church, Carthage

Grant Lengefeld, First Baptist Church, Hamilton

Mark Neeley, First Baptist Church, Mineola

Larry Post, Sugar Land Baptist Church, Sugar Land

Richard Rogers, University Heights Baptist Church, Huntsville

David Russell, First Baptist Church, Amarillo

Vernon Stokes, First Baptist Church, Midland

Mary Valerio, Primera Iglesia Bautista Kinwood, Houston

Bedilu Yirga, Ethiopian Evangelical Church, Garland

Directors to be Nominated to Fill Vacancies

2016 Term

Charles Greenfield, First Baptist Church, Monahans

Patsy Cochran, First Baptist Church, Gonzales

2015 Term

Xiomara Martinez, First Baptist Church, El Paso

Report from the Committee on Nominations for Boards of Affiliated Ministries

Baptist University of the Americas

2017 Term

Joseph Brake, Trinity Baptist Church, San Antonio

Luis Campos, South Main Baptist Church, Houston

Ruben Chairez, Primera Iglesia Bautista, Del Rio

Van Christian, First Baptist Church, Comanche

Rhoda Gonzales, North Dallas Family Church, Dallas

Elizabeth Hanna, Calder Baptist Church, Beaumont

Jesse Rincones, Alliance Church, Lubbock

2016 Term

Dora Fast, First Baptist Church, Cotulla

Baylor University

2018 Term

Joel Allison, Park Cities Baptist Church, Dallas

Linda Brian, First Baptist Church, Amarillo

Jennifer Elrod, Memorial Drive Baptist Church, Houston

Dallas Baptist University

2017 Term

Charles Frazier Jr., Park Cities Baptist Church, Dallas

Charles Ku, First Baptist Church, Lewisville

Herbert Pedersen, Longbranch Community Church, Midlothian

Patsy Smith, Woodland Heights Baptist Church, Bedford

Buena Stevenson, First Baptist Church, Plano

Joan Trew, Agape Baptist Church, Fort Worth

Cherry Williams, First Baptist Church, Arlington

East Texas Baptist University

2017 Term

David Chadwick, First Baptist Church, Center

Harold Cornish, First Baptist Church, Marshall

David Higgs, First Baptist Church, Henderson

Susan Livingston, First Baptist Church, College Station

David Rice, Crossroads Baptist Church, Marshall

Jana Sims, Crossroads Baptist Church, Marshall

Hardin-Simmons University

2017 Term

Louise Jones, First Baptist Church, San Angelo

Ann Bryant Lindsey, Columbus Avenue Baptist Church, Waco

Laura Moore, Pioneer Drive Baptist Church, Abilene

David Morgan, Trinity Baptist Church, Harker Heights

Karen Muñoz, Pioneer Drive Baptist Church, Abilene

Jud Powell, First Baptist Church, Abilene

Guinn Smith, Pioneer Drive Baptist Church, Abilene

2015 Term

George Newman, Pioneer Drive Baptist Church, Abilene

Houston Baptist University

2017 Term

Josh Guajardo, Trinity Baptist Church, Katy

Howard Payne University

2017 Term

Robert Carter, River Bend Church, Austin

Dwayne Grooms, First Baptist Church, Brownwood

Ronny Marriott, First Baptist Church, Temple

Milton McGee, First Baptist Church, Henderson

Roy Robb, First Baptist Church, San Angelo

David Robnett, Coggin Avenue Baptist Church, Brownwood

Candy Smith, First Baptist Church, Richardson

San Marcos Baptist Academy

2017 Term

Billy Belcher, First Baptist Church, Baytown

Scott Collins, The Crossing Baptist Church, Mesquite

Jimmie Scott, First Baptist Church, San Marcos

Joseph Sullivan, First Baptist Church, San Marcos

2016 Term

Rob Kessler, First Baptist Church, Palacios

University of Mary Hardin-Baylor

2017 Term

Travis Burleson, First Baptist Church, Salado

JoAn Dillard, First Baptist Church, Belton

Robert Galligan, Calvary Baptist Church, McAllen

Mike Harkrider, First Baptist Church, Boerne

Glenn Hodge, First Baptist Church, Salado

John Messer, First Baptist Church, Belton

Jack Phelps, Crestview Baptist Church, Georgetown

Mary Priest, First Baptist Church, Salado

Don Ringler, Taylor’s Valley Baptist Church, Temple

Ernest Roberts, First Baptist Church, Decatur

Dean Winkler, First Baptist Church, Temple

Wayland Baptist University

2017 Term

David Foote, Southcrest Baptist Church, Lubbock

Bruce Julian, First Baptist Church, Perryton

Marc McDougal, Oakwood Baptist Church, Lubbock

Rose Mediano, Alliance Church, Lubbock

Lonny Poe, Sunset Canyon Baptist Church, Dripping Springs

2015 Term

Sally Walker, First Baptist Church, Arlington

Valley Baptist Missions/Education Center

2017 Term

Othal Brand Jr., Calvary Baptist Church, McAllen

Raul Hernandez, Yorktown Baptist Church, Corpus Christi

Randy Johnson, First Baptist Church, Richardson

Jim Perkins Jr., Madison Hills Baptist Church, San Antonio

Baptist Community Services

2017 Term

Arthur Garner, Trinity Baptist Church, Amarillo

Robert Gibson, Second Baptist Church, Amarillo

Henry Hamilton, Paramount Baptist Church, Amarillo

Charles Jones, Hollywood Road Baptist Church, Amarillo

Baptist Health Foundation of San Antonio

2017 Term

Alice Gong, First Chinese Baptist Church, San Antonio

Muriel Rhoder, Calvary Baptist Church, San Antonio

Frank Scott, Alamo Heights Baptist Church, San Antonio

Toby Summers, Trinity Baptist Church, San Antonio

Baptist Hospitals of Southeast TX

2017 Term

D’Lana Barbay, First Baptist Church, Port Neches

Jeff Dyson, Calder Baptist Church, Beaumont

Gary Rothenberger Jr., Calvary Baptist Church, Beaumont

2015 Term

Greg Dykeman, Calvary Baptist Church, Beaumont

Buckner International

2017 Term

David Hennessee, Trinity Baptist Church, San Antonio

Children at Heart Ministries

2017 Term

Julie Christianson, Crestview Baptist Church, Georgetown

Lloyd Ferguson, First Baptist Church, Austin

Hal Harris Jr., Hyde Park Baptist Church, Austin

Ruthie Herber, Central Baptist Church, Round Rock

Calvin Lee Jr., First Baptist Church, Round Rock

Thomas Norris, First Baptist Church, Woodway

Ed Rogers, First Baptist Church, Georgetown

Hendrick Medical Center

2017 Term

Diane Leggett, First Baptist Church, Abilene

J.V. Martin, First Baptist Church, Sweetwater

Joe Melson, Pioneer Drive Baptist Church, Abilene

Janet O’Dell, Wylie Baptist Church, Abilene

David Scott, Southwest Park Baptist Church, Abilene

Mike Woodard, Southwest Park Baptist Church, Abilene

Hillcrest Health System

2017 Term

Loretta Oliver, Greater New Light Baptist Church, Waco

South Texas Children’s Home Ministries

2017 Term

Jean Culli, First Baptist Church, Beeville

Flo LeBlanc-Stovall, Minnehula Baptist Church, Goliad

Karol Peters, University Baptist Church, Houston

Sherry Sigmon, Shearer Hills Baptist Church, San Antonio

Dot Youngblood, First Baptist Church, Mineral Wells

Valley Baptist Legacy Foundation

2015 Term

Jack Abbott, First Baptist Church, Harlingen

Arnie Gonzales, First Baptist Church, Rio Hondo

Vern Stenseng, First Baptist Church, Harlingen

Baptist Church Loan Corporation

2017 Term

Dennis Tucker Jr., Calvary Baptist Church, Waco

Baptist Foundation of Texas

2017 Term

Robert Fowler, South Main Baptist Church, Houston

John Minton, First Baptist Church, Tyler

Harold Preston, First Baptist Church, Abilene

Baptist Standard

2017 Term

Jon Beilue, First Baptist Church, Amarillo

Meredith Pinson-Creasey, South Main Baptist Church, Houston

2015 Term

Charles Risinger, First Baptist Church, Longview

DALLAS—When Dallas civic and faith community leaders gathered to talk about how the city successfully weathered the Ebola crisis, one Baptist pastor urged them to remember the continuing challenges that confront the fiancée of the one person in North Texas who died from the virus.

“We’re discovering people are finding more reasons to say ‘no’ than to say ‘yes’” to Louise Troh and her family, said George Mason, pastor of Wilshire Baptist Church.

Troh, a member of Wilshire, was engaged to marry Thomas Eric Duncan, who died from Ebola Oct. 8 at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas.

‘Not all roses’

“It’s not all roses here,” Mason told the governmental and religious leaders who met at Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas for a final update on the city’s Ebola response.

Troh, her 13-year-old son and two nephews who lived with them endured a 21-day isolation period when medical personnel monitored them to see if they developed the Ebola virus. They lost their apartment, and officials who decontaminated it burned all their possessions.

The Catholic Diocese of Dallas provided short-term housing for Troh and her family during their three weeks in isolation. But when friends at Wilshire Church tried to find them permanent housing, they faced repeated roadblocks, Mason reported. Landlords in the Vickery Meadows area of northeast Dallas where she had lived 14 years refused to rent to her.

Wilshire Church may have found a solution by purchasing a condominium for Troh and her family, he continued.

“Members of our church agreed to buy it and rent to her,” Mason said. But even that plan faces hurdles, such as homeowner association covenants, as well as the need to provide Troh with furnishings and other living supplies.

Celebrated cooperation

Mason’s comments contrasted with most presenters on the panel, who celebrated the cooperation governmental and religious leaders demonstrated when Duncan first was diagnosed with Ebola and later when two nurses tested positive for the virus.

Mayor Mike Rawlings reported the second group of people in contact with Duncan cleared 21 days of monitoring with no evidence of the Ebola virus, and the final group considered at risk end their period of isolation Nov. 7.

“Thank God for this city, where we used science and sensibility, where we used facts and not fear, in making decisions,” he said.

In contrast to the one fatality from Ebola, Rawlings reminded the group 18 people in Dallas County died of West Nile virus in 2012, and more than 20 women were killed by their husbands or boyfriends this year.

“Domestic violence is much more a scourge to this city than Ebola,” he said.

County Judge Clay Jenkins acknowledged some parents in his children’s school ostracized them and his wife after he visited Troh. But he applauded Paul Rasmussen, his pastor at Highland Park United Methodist Church, who “walked my family to school.”

Prayer for those ‘in fear’

While Jenkins praised the “health care heroes” who provided care for Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, he also requested prayer for those “who don’t understand the science” and respond in fear.

“If we want to demonize anything, let’s demonize the terrible disease—not anyone for their reaction to it,” he said.

Mason joined in thanking city and county officials for the way they handled the Ebola incident. Even so, he reminded participants at the gathering of the impact unreasonable fear continues to have on one family.

“It’s easy to celebrate the good that happened. Only one person died. Only one family was completely dispossessed. But that family has no place to live yet. And we as a church are going to stay with them. We are committed to seeing them through this,” Mason said.

“There’s some serious loss here—loss of life, loss of possessions and, to some degree, loss of reputation. … We need to restore the lost and repair the broken. When people get whole, the community gets whole.”