Messengers to Texas Baptists’ annual meeting in Abilene next week will consider a $37.5 million total Texas budget for 2026 that depends on about $28 million in Texas Cooperative Program giving from churches.

If Cooperative Program giving reaches that mark next year, it will be the first time since 2018, when churches gave close to $28.2 million, and it will be about $2 million more than they gave last year.

Cooperative Program receipts from churches have declined gradually from $30.2 million in 2015 to $26 million in 2024, with the exception of one year.

During the past decade, 2022 was the only year that registered a slight uptick—about $230,000 above 2021 receipts.

However, investment income grew from $2.6 million in 2015 to more than $9.3 million in 2024.

Understanding the budget

When messengers to the annual meeting hear the budget presentation, several different terms may be used.

• The net Cooperative Program budget—dependent exclusively on receipts from churches to the unified giving plan—is $28 million.
• The net Texas Baptist budget includes both the $28 million in Cooperative Program giving from churches and an anticipated $7.98 million from investment income. The $36 million total undesignated budget is up from the $35.16 million in the 2025 budget.
• The $37.5 million total Texas Baptist budget includes the net budget, plus a projected $1.48 million in additional revenue from conference and booth fees and product sales. The proposed total Texas budget for 2026 is an increase from the $36.7 million budget adopted for 2025.

Beyond the total budget messengers will consider, other anticipated revenue in 2026 earmarked for specific causes includes $7 million in donor-designated gifts, $1.86 million in grants from the Mary Hill Davis Missions Offering and $300,000 from the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board.

An anticipated $1.2 million in worldwide missions giving will allocate $850,000 to international missions and partnerships and $250,000 to North American missions and partnerships.

Supporting GC2 Strong

The 2026 budget is organized around the main objectives of Texas Baptists’ GC2 Strong movement: Strengthening Churches, Strengthening Leaders and Engaging Missions, along with the areas of resource development and relationship development.

The proposed 2026 budget devotes more than $3.5 million—almost 10 percent of the budget—to the GC2 Strengthening Churches initiative.

The Strengthening Churches area includes the Pave church revitalization program, discipleship, evangelism, church architecture, music and worship, and the Christian Life Commission.

About $2.7 million—7.5 percent of the budget—is dedicated to the Strengthening Leaders initiative, with $1 million devoted to area representatives.

The Strengthening Leaders area also includes the Pastor’s Common, counseling services, pastoral health networks, chaplaincy, women in ministry, bivocational pastors, interim pastors and western heritage churches.

More than $3 million—8.5 percent of the budget—is devoted to the Engaging Missions initiative, including $2.745 million for church starting.

In addition, about $9.6 million—27 percent of the budget—goes toward the offices of the executive director, associate executive director and chief financial officer and the areas with which they work.

Those areas include information technology, finance and accounting, building support and operations, human resources, the Texas Baptist Historical Collection, ministerial benefits and retirees’ insurance.

Resource and relationship development

More than one-third—about 35 percent—of the budget is devoted to two underlying aspects of Texas Baptists’ GC2 Strong initiative: resource development and relationship development.

About $2.6 million—a little more than 7 percent—is dedicated to resource development, which includes communications, the Texas Baptist Missions Foundation and GC2 Press.

Almost $9.8 million—27 percent of the total—is earmarked for relationship development.

Under relationship development, support for educational institutions and human care institutions accounts for $8,286,286—about one-fourth of the total budget. Affinity groups account for a little more than $970,000 or 2.7 percent of the total.

Texas Baptists’ total budgeted support for other educational and human care institutions remains unchanged from 2025 to 2026.

Support for educational institutions

The $6 million for educational institutions—with $1,537,600 earmarked for ministerial financial aid—represents about 18 percent of the budget.

Ministerial financial aid is paid in arrears to institutions, which means the 2026 payment is for students enrolled from summer 2024 through spring 2025.

The total ministerial financial aid for the 2026 budget is comparable to the 2025 budget. However, the total number of students funded in the 2026 budget increased. The 2026 budget reflects an increased percentage of undergraduate students in the program, who are funded at a significantly lower scholarship level than graduate students.

Six universities affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas each will receive $500,000 in annual base support, an amount unchanged in the proposed 2026 budget. Texas Baptists elect a supermajority of the governing boards of affiliated institutions.

Affiliated universities are Baptist University of the Américas, East Texas Baptist University, Hardin-Simmons University, Howard Payne University, the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor and Wayland Baptist University.

Support for related universities

Two universities currently relate to the BGCT by special agreement, meaning Texas Baptists elect a minority of the institutions’ governing boards.

A third university anticipates moving from affiliated to related status, pending approval by messengers at Texas Baptists’ annual meeting in Abilene.

Dallas Baptist University, which previously received $500,000 in base support as an affiliated institution, will see that support decrease to $250,000 if messengers to the BGCT annual meeting approve its new relationship agreement with Texas Baptists.

DBU also is expected to see a drop in ministerial financial aid from $293,188 in 2025 to $283,475 in 2026.

BGCT budget support for DBU in 2026 totals $533,475. According to last year’s Book of Reports, DBU’s annual operating expenses at that time were more than $135 million.

Houston Christian University will receive $250,000 in annual base support. Its ministerial financial aid will decrease from $49,575 to $35,200.

BGCT budget support for HCU in 2026 totals $285,200. According to last year’s Book of Reports, HCU’s annual operating expenses at that time were more than $127 million.

DBU and HCU worked out special agreements approved by Texas Baptists’ institutional relations committee and the BGCT Executive Board, with final consideration by messengers to the BGCT annual meeting.

Although Baylor University grants Texas Baptists the right to elect a minority of its governing board, the university does not receive any base support from the BGCT. Baylor unilaterally changed its charter in 1990.

However, Baylor is slated to receive the largest total budgeted support from Texas Baptists due to ministerial financial aid. Even so, Baylor will see its total budgeted support from the BGCT decrease, from $689,525 in 2025 to $649,575 in 2026.

In May, Baylor’s board of regents approved a $995.8 million university operating budget for 2025-2026.

Texas Baptists’ support for Baylor’s Truett Theological Seminary also will decrease—from $458,150 to $452,750.

Affiliated universities, health and human care

Hardin-Simmons will see its total budgeted support decrease from $515,550 to $507,575 due to a drop in ministerial financial aid.

Six educational institutions will receive increases in their total budget support, due entirely to a rise in ministerial financial aid.

Among all educational institutions, Stark College is set to receive the largest increase in total budgeted support, from $76,125 in 2025 to $103,775 in 2026. Stark College does not receive any base support from the BGCT.

ETBU—now home to B.H. Carroll Theological Seminary—will see an $11,275 increase, from $582,750 to $594,025.

Four other universities will see varying increases in ministerial financial aid. Howard Payne is due to receive a $10,200 increase, UMHB is slated to receive a $2,550 increase, Wayland will receive a $975 increase, and BUA will receive a $275 increase.

The $2.2 million for health and human care institutions represents a little more than 6 percent of Texas Baptists’ proposed 2026 budget.

That includes $500,000 each for Children at Heart Ministries and South Texas Children’s Home Ministries, as well as $250,000 for Buckner Children and Family Services and $160,000 for San Marcos Baptist Academy.

It also includes $150,000 each for chaplaincy and pastoral care at Baylor Health Care system, Hendrick Health System, Hillcrest Baptist Health System and Baptist Hospitals of Southeast Texas.

Collegiate ministry is slated to receive $4.668 million in 2026, about 13 percent of the total undesignated budget.

Mahala Griffin-Halvorson, nursing student at Baylor, gave birth to her son, Hudson, 13 weeks early, while her husband, Caleb, was in the hospital from serious injuries fighting a fire.

Caleb was at the scene of a house fire when the roof of the garage in a burning home fell on him and trapped him in the flames and smoke, NBC News reported.

“I thought I was going to die because it was so hot,” Caleb told NBC News.

Caleb, a Fort Worth firefighter, went through surgery for burns and a serious knee injury.

Halvorson is in her final semester of nursing school at the Louise Herrington School of Nursing in the Distance Accelerated Bachelor of Science program track.

She gave birth to Hudson at Texas Health Resources Alliance Hospital.

Mahala and Caleb credit their faith, resilience and the support of others that brought them back together.

“Here at the [Louise Herrington School of Nursing], we are keeping Hudson and Caleb in our prayers as they both grow stronger while Mahala returns to nursing school to complete her degree with the anticipated graduation date of December 2025,” said Kathryn Osteen, clinical professor and associate dean for pre-licensure program at the nursing school.

“Just like Mahala’s family recently experienced, we all need a nurse at some point in our lives, and the need for caring and compassionate nurses has never been greater.

“We are proud of Mahala’s determination to press on amidst all that her family has endured. She is a testament to the belief that nursing is more than just a profession but a lifetime calling to make a genuine difference.”

Her newborn baby and husband fought for their lives but made it out of the hospital, reuniting with each other through prayers and support.

Caleb was able to come home to continue his healing journey. Four days later, Hudson came home.

The experience strengthened Mahala’s resolve to her call into nursing.

“This whole experience has really shown me the value of nurses as more than just a means of care,” she said.

“The nurses were my sounding board. They never made me feel stupid for being mad. They let me sit in my feelings. And they never left me feeling alone in this. They were who I needed, and I hope to one day be the person a family member needs in the future.”

The neonatal intensive care unit meant more to her than the definition of its services, Mahala said.

“If you google NICU, it will say ‘neonatal intensive care unit,’ but to me it’s so much more than that. It’s a place where the walls hear more prayers than a church,” she added.

“It’s often more quiet than a place full of babies should be. It’s full of growth and heartbreak. It’s where little miracles happen along with worst nightmares. This is the place where I want to make a difference.

“Plus, the burn unit is unlike any place I have ever been before. The distinct smell, cries and care is something I will never forget. It’s one of the most painful, but quickest healing units at the same time.”

A Texans on Mission emergency response team is in Jamaica to help coordinate relief efforts by churches after Hurricane Melissa devastated the island, and all other Texans on Mission disaster relief volunteers are on alert for possible deployment.

The emergency response team left Texas on Nov. 1 to help organize and maximize the relief ministries of Jamaican churches.

The highly trained volunteers are working with regional church leaders “to assess immediate needs, develop structured recovery plans and implement actionable strategies for long-term community resilience,” Texans on Mission officials announced on social media.

“Their extensive experience in disaster relief, church mobilization and logistics will empower church members to live out their faith by meeting needs and sharing God’s love in these difficult days,” said Mickey Lenamon, chief executive officer of Texans on Mission.

All Texans on Mission disaster relief units—including food service workers, chainsaw crews and heavy equipment operators—were placed on alert status on Nov. 3, meaning volunteers need to prepare for deployment on short notice.

Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica as a Category 5 storm on Oct. 28, packing sustained 185 mph winds with heavy rainfall.

“Homes and churches have been demolished, and communities have no power or running water,” Texans on Mission posted on social media. “Many have lost everything.”

‘A disaster unlike anything we’ve had before’

Texans on Mission personnel participated in a Nov. 3 Baptist World Alliance call with Marilyn Hide Riley, general secretary of Jamaica Baptist Union.

“We experienced a disaster unlike anything we’ve had before. We are used to hurricanes, but nothing like this,” Riley said.

While damage was concentrated in the western part of Jamaica, 70 percent of the country still lacked electricity, water was unavailable in some regions, and some areas remained inaccessible, she reported. Communication is limited due to lack of cell phones and internet access.

“I do not think I can find the words to describe what has happened,” Riley said. “We have never seen this extent of damage to churches.”

In Jamaica, the average pastor leads three congregations, and communities depend on service churches provide, she noted. They need food and water, generators, tents for temporary housing and tarps to cover damaged roofs.

To support Texans on Mission disaster relief financially, give online here, call (214) 275-1100 or mail a check to Texans on Mission, 5351 Catron Dr., Dallas, TX 75227.

John Hall of Texans on Mission contributed to this report. 

EDITOR’S NOTE: A federal judge in Rhode Island on Oct. 31 ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture to make SNAP payments. The Trump Administration announced Nov. 3 it would use contingency funds to provide partial SNAP benefits that will cover about half of each eligible household’s benefits in November.

Community ministries and Texas Baptist churches with food pantries prepared for a sharp rise in needs after Nov. 1, when 3.5 million Texans—including 1.7 million children—expect to lose food assistance benefits due to the ongoing government shutdown.

Barring some stopgap measure by Congress, up to 42 million Americans will lose access to benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, previously known as food stamps.

“When those benefits disappear, families will face impossible choices—between food and rent, groceries and medicine,” said Jeremy Everett, executive director of the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty. “Small businesses, grocery stores and local food pantries will all feel the strain.

“If loving our neighbor is the standard by which we demonstrate our faith, then our response in moments like these reveals where our faith truly lies.”

In addition to the loss of SNAP benefits to low-income families, some government employees have been furloughed or temporarily are working without pay.

Churches seek to ‘reflect the kindness of Christ’

Churches in Midland are working cooperatively to “reflect the kindness of Christ and our calling to care for people,” said Pastor Darin Wood of First Baptist Church.

“With the government shutdown and the end of SNAP benefits looming, we—the pastors and shepherds of our city—want to say we’re in it for those who are affected,” Wood wrote in a social media post.

Beginning Nov. 1 and continuing “until the shutdown ends and benefits are restored,” churches are working together to meet as many needs as possible daily on a rotating basis, he wrote.

For its part, First Baptist Church will provide a free hot meal from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 4. Fannin Terrace Baptist Church will provide a meal from 5 p.m to 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 6.

Other churches involved in the Midland effort include Greater Ideal Church, Mount Moriah Disciples of Christ Church, Golf Course Road Church of Christ, First Presbyterian Church, First Methodist Church and First Christian Church, along with several local ministries.

“Here’s our plan. No ID required and no costs,” Wood announced on social media. “Just come eat and know that Jesus loves you and sent us to do the same.”

Texas Baptists offer grants

The Baptist General Convention of Texas wants to help churches meet the increased needs of their neighbors, Executive Director Julio Guarneri announced in an Oct. 30 email.

“We are thankful for churches that have food pantries and hunger ministries. Many of these, we know, are stretched as they seek to serve clients who have a greater need due to not receiving government pay or benefits,” Guarneri stated.

In response, the BGCT is allocating a $100,000 grant to be distributed by the Texas Baptist Hunger Offering office.

Grants range from $1,000 to $10,000, said Irene Gallegos, director of hunger care ministries with Texas Baptists’ Christian Life Commission.

Churches with food pantries and hunger ministries can inquire about a grant by clicking here, and they will be provided more information about how to apply.

About 20 churches and ministries responded within the first 12 hours after Guarneri sent his email, Gallegos noted.

How to help

To contribute to the Texas Baptist Hunger Offering, click here.

When giving—whether to a local ministry, a regional food bank or through another avenue—Everett suggested contributing what a family in Texas will lose in SNAP benefits: an average household benefit of $356 a month or $12 a day.

He also encouraged concerned Christians to volunteer.

“Local pantries and meal programs will be stretched thin in the weeks ahead as they consider how to meet an influx of community needs,” he stated.

“They cannot extend their hours, serve more neighbors or manage donations without help. Offer your time, your hands and your presence.”

A proper understanding of God’s Triune nature offers insights into the nature of humanity created in God’s image, theologian Rowan Williams told a gathering at First Baptist Church in Waco.

The ancient Nicaean Creed not only affirmed the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, but also influenced the Western understanding of politics and power in varying degrees over the next 1,700 years, the former head of the worldwide Anglican communion said.

Williams, who served as the archbishop of Canterbury from 2002 to 2012, delivered the Parchman Lectures, sponsored by Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary on Oct. 28-29 in Waco.

Truett Seminary moved the lectures from Powell Chapel on the Baylor campus to the sanctuary of nearby First Baptist Church to accommodate the exceptionally large crowd, Dean Todd Still said.

Williams’ lectures focused on “The Word Was with God: Trinitarian Reflections on the Anniversary of the Council of Nicaea.”

The Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. affirmed the Christian doctrines of belief in “one God, the Father Almighty;” in “one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God,” who is “eternally begotten of the Father;” and in “the Holy Spirit … who proceeds from the Father and the Son.”

The council rejected the Arian heresy that Christ was a created being altogether distinct from God the Father, insisting instead that God the Son and God the Father are “of the same substance.”

‘Theological tension at work’

Williams acknowledged the “theological tension at work” in affirming one God in three Persons who is both giver and receiver—unchanging in some sense and yet fully identifying with suffering humanity in his incarnation.

In part, the unity of the Triune God is the unity of action, he suggested.

“We can’t talk about God without talking about creation and redemption” involving God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, he said.

Jesus is both the heavenly High Priest and the sacrifice itself offered on the heavenly altar, Williams said.

In describing the Trinity, Williams used the analogy of a musical chord in perfect harmony rather than an isolated note.

“The unity, the indivisibility, of God is an indivisible interaction—symphonic or harmonic, not a single line of music,” he said.

No ‘trickling down’ of divine power

The divine power exercised by the Triune God is inherent, not delegated or hierarchical, he said.

“There is no trickling down from the Father to the Son or from the Son to the Spirit,” he said.

Jesus declared himself to be one with God, while at the same time, he called upon God as “Father” and taught his disciples to do the same, emphasizing the relational aspect of the Trinity.

The unity of the Triune God is eternally familial, interactive and relational, Williams asserted.

“There is no way to speak about God without speaking of God’s relatedness,” he said.

While God the Father is the Creator of life and the Sustainer of life, the same can be said of God the Son and God the Spirit. Giving life is “the same family habit,” Williams said.

Image of God means giving and receiving life

So, as adopted children of God created in the image of God, redeemed humans live out their role as image-bearers most fully through giving life and giving of themselves within the body of Christ, he said.

“To be in the divine image is for us to be so constituted that the life given to us is a life we share with and receive from one another. The pattern of creation itself is a pattern of life giving,” Williams said. “In the new creation, the pattern of life giving is renewed and intensified.”

Humans are part of the larger web of creation, and they are not created to be alone or to live in opposition to the created order, he asserted.

“Violence against the world is a kind of violence against ourselves,” Williams said.

The “radical mutuality” evident in the Triune God should be reflected in humans who bear his image and in the church as the body of Christ, he said.

Politics and power

In what he described as “a slight digression,” Williams explored the political implications of how Western Christianity has understood the Trinity, particularly how power is understood.

He pointed to an early 20th century debate in Germany between Carl Schmitt and Erik Peterson over political theology—specifically the relationship between the doctrine of the Trinity and monarchical authority.

Schmitt emphasized the “sovereign will” of God. He believed the sovereignty of God meant God can do whatever God chooses, including intervening in the created world and suspending the laws of nature, Williams explained.

By the same principle, the earthly monarch—or other authoritarian ruler of a nation—had the right to suspend the rule of law in the event of an emergency, Schmitt asserted.

Furthermore, the sovereign ruler alone possessed the right to declare a state of emergency in Schmitt’s view. That belief provided theological justification for the National Socialist Party in Germany and Hitler’s rise to power.

‘Unity of agency’

Peterson, on the other hand, saw absolute divine monarchism as incompatible with a Nicaean view of the Trinity, Williams explained.

“Monarchy belongs to the entirety of the divine life. Monarchy belongs to the Trinity in its full relatedness,” he said.

Peterson saw the sovereign will of God exercised in the “unity of agency” by the Father, Son and Spirit working in concert. He rejected any view that considered the power of God the Son or God the Holy Spirit as delegated or subordinate to God the Father.

So, Peterson rejected any political theology that granted absolute sovereignty to any single earthly ruler—including the German Führer.

Drawing on lessons learned from that debate, Williams drew applications both for secular politics and the church.

“We need to know where sovereignty resides,” he said.

No single individual or political system can “embody the sovereignty of God,” but the church embodies it through kingdom actions, Williams suggested.

Politics effectively tells people “who the enemy is,” because “the other” is seen as “a threat to be contained,” Williams said. The Trinity, on the other hand, may offer a model in which difference does not mean enmity.

“What if, in the divine life, we have a vision of otherness which is wholly interdependent and in no sense a threat to be resolved?” he asked.

“This nail … takes me to Italy,” said Dallas Jenkins, creator of “The Chosen” hit TV series that follows the life of Christ.

Jenkins held the Roman-era crucifixion spike in his hand while being interviewed on stage during the Oct. 28 Veritas Lecture sponsored by the Institute for Global Engagement at Dallas Baptist University.

“We filmed the crucifixion sequence in Italy. It’s a place that multiple films have been filmed about the crucifixion because it’s one of the only places in the world that still has the first century backdrop.”

“Filming season six has been without a doubt the hardest thing I’ve ever done … in my career and for my family,” Jenkins said.

“It has been in many ways a test of what I believe God asks of all of us: Can you surrender? Can you be humbled before me? And can you have faith and trust even when you don’t necessarily understand or know the outcome?”

Jenkins admitted, while he was uncertain of the outcome of the series’ next season, he was encouraged by how God has kept him, his family and his production team.

The opportunity to film the death of Jesus in Italy was a chance for God to show Jenkins and his team both the beauty and pain that came with Christ’s sacrifice for humanity. It was a point during production Jenkins had to step away as he processed the moment and considered what the disciples might have felt.

“Everyone in this room faces moments where we don’t know the outcome,” Jenkins said.

Reliance on God and others

During season one, Jenkins was moved by a moment when God provided what was needed during a film shoot.

Five days before filming the miracle where Jesus told Simon to let his net down to catch fish, the crew was without a boat, a lake or fish.

 “The lake flooded. So, we didn’t have a shore. The boat we tried to build was taking too long. I do not have the tools I need. I was in that place where I couldn’t solve this. Five days later, the lake had gone down exactly to the part where we needed to get down,” Jenkins said.

 The boat was delivered the same day, and the fish were provided through the special visual effects team.

“When I’m directing a scene, I can see how it’s going, and I can control how it’s going. In this case, I couldn’t. It was out of my own control. I was relying so much on others,” Jenkins said.

While filming “The Chosen,” Jenkins learned to trust God, including with the crew and the provisions needed for telling stories of the Bible.

“I realized this is not my project. I am going to have to get used to this notion that other people in my life are going to, of course, be smarter, better than I am in some areas. I’m going to have to rely on that, too. And then we’re all going to rely on God to perceive these things,” Jenkins continued.

“And that was a really, really powerful and encouraging lesson, when you realize, ‘I’m not good enough to do this,’” Jenkins said.

What God thinks

During his time filming “The Chosen,” Jenkins has received an overwhelming amount of praise and criticism.

Jenkins said there are plenty of people struggling with God’s call on their lives.

“What is miraculous is who I was before ‘The Chosen,’” Jenkins said. “My drug of choice was affirmation, legitimacy. I cared deeply about what the movie industry thought of me. I wanted to be taken seriously. I wanted fans. I wanted my films to be top of the box office.”

Jenkins added it was through failure God told him he was ready to work on “The Chosen.”

“The reason our company is called ‘5&2 Studios’ is because in that moment of failure, in that moment of desperation, I was reminded by God that your job is not to feed the 5,000 but to provide the loaves and fish,” Jenkins said.

“Whatever gifts God has given you, you make them available to God to use them. He deems them worthy of acceptance. And that’s a hard pill to swallow for someone who cares about results and wants to get credit for the results,” Jenkins said.

It is equally important not to be moved by praise nor by criticism, but to care about what God thinks, Jenkins added.

A yearlong study of Waco’s Church Under the Bridge reveals lessons about how to create a welcoming community where people who never felt accepted in church can find a place where they belong.

When Melody Escobar arrived at Baylor University, she asked a colleague where individuals in Waco with mental, physical or developmental disabilities liked to worship.

Her co-worker pointed her to the congregation that has met regularly for three decades beneath the Interstate 35 overpass at South Fourth St.

After she attended the 2024 Palm Sunday service at Church Under the Bridge and became acquainted with Pastor Jimmy Dorrell, she realized “something really special was going on at the Church Under the Bridge” that deserved serious examination.

Escobar, associate research scientist at the Baylor Collaborative on Faith and Disability, and research assistant Caroline Reed conducted the “Belonging Under the Bridge” study, funded by the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship.

Worshipping community ‘united in diversity’

“For me, the key dimension that emerged in the study was how they are so united in diversity,” Escobar said.

Of the 33 individuals interviewed by researchers, more than 20 percent are unhoused. More than half—55 percent—reported a disability, and more than one-fourth reported a history of substance abuse disorders.

Many members live in extreme poverty and some previously have been incarcerated. However, Church Under the Bridge also counts among its members Baylor students, teachers, medical professionals, ministers and nonprofit workers.

“People spoke of discovering a sanctuary under the bridge—this place where diversity isn’t an obstacle but a driving force of the community,” Escobar said. “And so, there’s this palpable and powerful sense of belonging.”

Worshippers reported an “immediate felt sense that each person is indispensable to their life together,” she said.

“They described a powerful sense of belonging fostered by the embodied presence and celebration of diverse backgrounds, identities and spiritual gifts,” a summary report of the study states.

“United in diversity reflects the church’s theological commitment to honor each person’s inherent dignity and to actualize the compassionate discipleship Jesus prescribes in Matthew 25—frequently referenced by the senior pastor and members alike as a guiding ethos for ministry—encountering Christ in all people.”

Church Under the Bridge’s open-air setting—“worshipping without walls”—contributes to fostering an environment where everyone is welcome, and worshippers encounter God outside conventional spaces, she noted.

Engaged in using spiritual gifts

Dorrell’s approachable “relationship-first style of leadership” creates an atmosphere of genuine acceptance and a sense everyone is “seen and valued,” she said.

“I witnessed him every Sunday welcome people warmly, ask them their name and stop to hear their story,” Escobar said.

Individuals interviewed said they not only felt welcomed to worship, but also to serve and engage meaningfully in the life of the faith community, she reported.

“The spirit of welcome naturally flowed into the church’s commitment to the sense of ministry by all,” Escobar said.

“Everyone is seen as having a gift to contribute. They devote a lot of time to holding sessions on spiritual gifts, nurturing those gifts and getting people connected to meaningful roles.

“The conviction that every person is needed for this ministry is a conviction that shapes all aspects of their life together.”

The study revealed worshippers not only received acceptance and friendship at Church Under the Bridge, but found “family” there through small-group gatherings and shared meals, she said.

Found family, experienced transformation

Members told interviewers “they felt cared for,” were missed when they were absent, and discovered “a sense of stability that many had not experienced before,” Escobar said.

“Belonging reflects something biblical—an understanding of community and mutual care,” Escobar said. “Belonging is a desire placed in our heart by God. It’s a reflection of our need for relationship.

“When we turn away from that life together, we lose that sacred opportunity to be shaped by others, to know ourselves more fully, and to experience the transformation God intends for us in our communities.”

The yearlong study revealed participants not only reported spiritual transformation and holistic well-being, but also shifts in their worldview about people different from themselves.

The study concludes with recommendations for the wider church, based on suggestions by participants who were interviewed:

• Remove physical and social barriers to worship.

“Listening is a real gift,” Escobar said, encouraging church leaders to pay attention to the “lived experience” of people who have felt excluded.

In addition to making practical accommodations for individuals with disabilities, church leaders can remove barriers by raising awareness, educating members and “sharing stories that open people to different ways of thinking about community,” Escobar said.

• Embrace freedom and flexibility in worship.

Escobar emphasized the importance of “making room for every voice and people of all abilities to participate.”

• Prioritize authenticity.

“Belonging grows when communities prioritize that genuine connection … putting community over image or presentation so that you have spaces for people to show up as they are,” Escobar said.

“It’s found in simple things—learning names, valuing each person’s story.”

• Welcome and empower historically excluded people.

“Make every member feel invited and equipped to take part in the life of the church,” Escobar said.

“Church Under the Bridge does that really well—helping people to see that they are gifted and have something to contribute for the vitality of the congregation.

“When those who have been left out are invited into discipleship and given visible and meaningful roles, I think we truly see what it means to be the body of Christ where every person’s presence and contribution matters.”

IRVING, Texas (BP)—Matt Queen, the former interim Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary provost who pleaded guilty a year ago to making a false statement to federal investigators, has joined the staff of Plymouth Park Baptist Church in Irving as associate pastor.

Plymouth Park Church pointed to Queen’s “three decades of experience in a variety of roles and contexts as a leading voice in evangelism” and called him “a passionate evangelist and author” of several books.

Queen’s case came about through the Department of Justice’s investigation into allegations of mishandling claims of sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention. He ultimately received a judgment of time served with one year of supervised release and six months of home confinement, alongside paying a $2,000 fine and $100 special assessment.

Supervised release required Queen to participate in outpatient mental health treatment and continued usage of prescribed medications.

Queen’s plea centered around falsified notes investigators said he provided in the spring of 2023 following a report of sexual abuse by a student at Texas Baptist College, Southwestern’s undergraduate arm.

Plymouth Park Pastor Matt Henslee told The Roys Report news outlet that while he did recommend Queen, a longtime friend, for the position, he was not part of the hiring process.

The church’s trustees and legal counsel “perused every single page of those court documents,” Henslee told The Roys Report. Church leaders also interviewed Queen for two and a half hours.

Queen was the only individual publicly indicted in the Department of Justice investigation launched in August 2022 and concluded in March of this year. No sexual abuse-related charges were filed as a result of the investigation.

Texas Baptists’ Christian Life Commission is urging church leaders to sign a letter to U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi calling on the Department of Justice to prohibit foreign governments from using tracking technologies to send targeted messages to worshippers in U.S. churches without their consent.

On Sept. 27, Show Faith by Works—an organization acting as an agent of Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs—filed disclosures with the Justice Department as required by the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

The disclosures revealed the organization’s intent to use geolocation and geofencing technology to send targeted messages to the mobile devices of individuals on the property of 465 churches—including more than 200 in Texas—without their knowledge and consent.

‘Crosses a line that should concern all Americans’

“We recognize the importance of diplomatic relations and the legitimate interests of allied nations. However, the surreptitious targeting of American worshipers on the grounds of their churches crosses a line that should concern all Americans who value religious freedom and privacy,” the letter to Bondi from Texas Baptists states.

John Litzler, CLC director of public policy and general counsel for the Baptist General Convention of Texas, noted most smartphone apps request user permission before accessing a user’s geographic location.

“Because of privacy rights, users typically have a choice whether to deny access to their location, always grant access to their location, or grant access to their location only while using the application. In these instances there is a knowing and voluntary decision by the user,” Litzler explained.

“If I allow a restaurant to know my location, for example, I may be able to place mobile orders and receive an occasional free chicken sandwich.

“In contrast, the targeting described in this filing would be done without the knowledge or consent of pastors and congregants.”

The letter to Bondi raises five key issues:

• Violations of religious liberty, freedom of association and free assembly.

Houses of worship historically have been “protected spaces where Americans gather freely to practice their faith without government surveillance or foreign interference,” the letter states.

“Allowing government-sanctioned foreign surveillance and influence operations within church sanctuaries fundamentally undermines this separation by entangling houses of worship with state-approved foreign political campaigns.”

Targeting individuals in places of worship also can have a “chilling effect” on the freedom to assemble and freely exercise faith, the letter notes.

“Allowing a foreign government access to geolocation data to every phone located on a church premises is akin to requiring the churches to turn over their membership lists,” the letter states.

• Violations of property and privacy.

Most of the places of worship listed in the filing are the private property of the faith communities that assemble there, the letter notes.

“Property rights are built on the principle that property owners should have the right to exclude others from their property,” the letter states.

“Geofencing, without the knowledge or consent of the property owner, circumvents these ownership rights by tracking individuals’ whereabouts everywhere on church property from the prayer room to the bathroom.”

• Lack of informed consent.

Individual worshippers “have no knowledge they are being targeted and are provided no ability to opt out,” the letter states.

• Violation of religious autonomy.

Houses of worship and their leaders “should have the right to determine what outside influences, particularly from foreign governments, are permitted to communicate with their congregations on church property,” the letter states.

• Sets a dangerous precedent.

“Allowing agents of foreign governments to use surveillance technology to target faith communities sets a troubling precedent that could be exploited by any foreign actor, whether allied or adversarial to the United States,” the letter states.

‘Potential for gross violations’ of civil rights

Two years ago, Calvary Chapel in San Jose, Calif., sued Santa Clara County for geofencing its premises to track congregants who attended worship services during a COVID-19 pandemic “shelter-in-place” order.

The claims in that lawsuit “demonstrate the potential for gross violations of Americans’ civil rights when foreign or domestic governments are allowed to use this technology to track church attendees,” Litzler said.

“If a local, state or federal government entity tried to compel churches to turn over their membership lists, Christians would rightly be concerned about infringement on our rights of religious freedom and freedom of association,” he said.

“By setting a geofence around a church and collecting information about who enters that area each Sunday, foreign actors will gain enough information about church attendees that it’s tantamount to turning over a membership list to them.”

The letter from Texas Baptists to Bondi asks the Department of Justice to:

• Prohibit agents of foreign governments from using geolocation, geofencing or similar tracking technologies “to target individuals at houses of worship in the United States without their consent.”
• Establish an opt-in requirement that would allow foreign governments and their agents to use tracking technologies only at places of worship that have “explicitly and voluntarily consented in writing.” It would require full disclosure of “the foreign entity involved and the nature of the messaging to be delivered.”

“Houses of worship should remain sanctuaries free from uninvited foreign government surveillance and influence,” the letter to Bondi states.

“We ask that you act swiftly to protect the integrity of our religious institutions and the rights of all Americans to worship freely according to their conscience.”

Church leaders can sign the letter by clicking here.

Religious nationalism “cheapens” religion and exchanges genuine love of country for a blank check that justifies any action a country takes, panelists said during the Global Religious Freedom Gathering at Dallas Baptist University.

Randel Everett, director of DBU’s Center for Global Religious Freedom, moderated a panel discussion Oct. 20 on “Religious Nationalism Globally and Its Effect on Minorities.”

Panelists were Jack Goodyear, dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at DBU; Anna Lee Stangl, head of advocacy for Christian Solidarity Worldwide; and Katie Frugé, director of Texas Baptists’ Christian Life Commission.

Christian nationalism—which conflates Christianity and national identity—“compromises the faith, and it compromises the gospel,” Frugé said.

“This nationalistic merging with your faith cheapens the faith. It cheapens your experience with the Holy Spirit,” she said. “Really, at the end of the day, it becomes something that’s not even a true gospel. It’s a hindrance to your spiritual health.

“So, if our goal is human flourishing as a society, the best way for that to happen is to have faithful, real, authentic relationships with our Creator. And the best way toward that is not nationalism.”

Distinction between patriotism and nationalism

Goodyear drew a distinction between healthy patriotism—loving one’s country enough to hold it accountable when it fails to live up to its ideals—and unhealthy nationalism, particularly religious nationalism.

“Nationalism would tend to justify anything your country is doing, and anybody who opposes that are the ones who are [seen as] wrong,” he said. “Healthy patriotism allows you to love your country while still calling to account your country.”

Stangl agreed true patriotism means “speaking truth into what is happening” in a country and what it is doing abroad.

That becomes problematic when national identity and religious identity are combined, she observed.

Hindu nationalists in India, Buddhist nationalists in Myanmar and Sri Lanka, and Orthodox Christian nationalists in Russia offer contemporary international examples of how religious nationalism leads to “othering” and persecution of minorities, she said.

Furthermore, the parameters for acceptable religion continually shrink, she observed.

“When you raise up one group, that group will inevitably narrow,” Stangl said.

In Russia, for instance, the Orthodox Church is linked to Vladimir Putin, but dissident Orthodox groups are not, she said. So, only one dominant group within the Orthodox Church is recognized as legitimate.

Grants permission for ‘dehumanization’

Similarly, Frugé said, the rise of Christian nationalism in the United States begs the question, “Which version of Christianity?”

Eventually, the field narrows and one dominant group prevails at the expense of all others, she observed.

“It has the dynamic of ‘us versus them,’” Frugé said. “You have to have an ‘other’ who becomes the enemy, the target of the opposition. It creates a permission structure of dehumanization—to treat others as ‘less than.’”

That approach “chips away” at the fundamental Christian idea of each person bearing the image of God and possessing inherent worth, she asserted.

“It’s an unsustainable system,” she said.

Christian nationalism often “promotes fear” of those who are different, Stangl said.

Simply “being in proximity” to people of other faiths and recognizing they do not present any danger can help dispel those fears, she noted.

Same terminology, different meanings

Panelists acknowledged the challenge of confronting religious nationalism when it uses some of the same language and terminology of traditional religion while redefining terms and reshaping identity.

“For me, sometimes it begins with a gentle conversation of just establishing our terms and what we mean,” Frugé said.

For Baptists, it means “rooting the conversation in historicity” and making it clear an insistence on religious liberty for all is “who we’ve always been,” she added.

Goodyear emphasized the importance of telling stories about religious liberty that allow individuals to “see the human element and how it impacts people” instead of simply presenting hard facts.

Churches can help promote conversations that bring together people from diverse backgrounds to “mellow extremism” and help them see the viewpoints of others, he suggested.

Stangl offered an international example of churches teaching basic democratic principles to members.

She cited the example of a pastor in an authoritarian country who taught his people the importance of voting on simple decisions affecting the congregation and abiding by the will of the majority.

The pastor intentionally was preparing church members for the time when they might have the right to vote on national matters, she said.

Stangl also emphasized the value not only in telling stories from history, but also stories about what is going on around the world.

“It’s important to be talking about what’s happening in Burma and what’s happening in Russia and then tying it to here,” she said.

“I think a lot of Christians here who may be falling in love with the idea of Christian nationalism would immediately say, ‘It’s horrible what’s happening there.’”

DALLAS—The craft of writing and the ethics of writing, just as with spiritual growth and maturity, offer no shortcuts, author Karen Swallow Prior said during her Oct. 16 lecture sponsored by the Institute for Global Engagement at Dallas Baptist University.

Using AI never can replace the skills or purpose of writing and reading, and there are risks such as plagiarism and stolen sources, Prior said.

“You have to know enough of the craft to recognize whether or not a tool’s effects are correct or good,” said Prior, author of The Evangelical Imagination, On Reading Well and You Have a Calling.

The purpose of reading and writing

To refresh her mind, Prior said, she often goes for runs around her neighborhood, fulfilling her purpose to keep her mind and heart clear.

To Prior, to read and write are ways to connect spiritually with God and others and to fulfill the purpose God has given.

 “You don’t get writing assignments because your professor needs more work to do. It all goes back to purpose. And shortcuts to fulfilling our purpose only can defeat the purpose,” Prior said.

Both reading and writing are important, Prior said, because we are made in the image of God, and he spoke the sky, land, sea and all of creation into existence with words.

“We, too, are made to use language to steward, to create with our words, and not just poems and stories and songs and final papers. We were made to create with words to offer love to one another, to ourselves, to our neighbors … to bring light and clarity,” Prior said.

“AI is just stolen words jumbled together and spit back out by a machine,” she continued.

“[AI] may be artificial, but it is not intelligent,” Prior noted.

“People were right about the printing press, too. I am hoping that AI becomes something better. But it is not there yet,” she added.

During the Q&A following the lecture, Prior agreed reading multiple works of literature help build empathy toward others.

Soulless versus meaningful

Prior told a story about one of her students who turned in a paper written with the help of ChatGPT, a program she was unfamiliar with at the time.

Familiar with searching for plagiarism and citation errors, Prior searched throughout the perfectly written paper and was astonished by how accurate and perfect it was. But the paper lacked a soul, a point Prior made to the audience while comparing writing with and without AI.

“We are meaning-making creatures. This is what we are made to do, and this is what we do,” Prior said.

“We are constantly searching for and trying to make meaning. And that’s what reading is literally and metaphorically. It is the effort to make meaning, whether you’re a 5-year-old … or whether you’re reading dense works of philosophy or reading the Bible to interpret it or reading each other’s faces,” Prior continued.

“I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say,” Prior said, quoting author Flannery O’Connor.

Prior told the audience to practice reading a lot of different things, from children’s material to classic fiction to written works encouraging intellectual thought.

Reading and writing are part of the larger journey of our own story and purpose in life, Prior said, and over time, a person can learn to read and write better if one doesn’t use AI.

Christians are commanded, commissioned and called to combat all religious persecution, international human rights attorney Knox Thames told a gathering at Dallas Baptist University.

Two-thirds of the global population live in countries that restrict the free practice of faith, Thames informed the Global Religious Freedom Gathering, sponsored by Christians Against All Persecution and DBU’s Center for Global Religious Freedom.

Thames, author of Ending Persecution: Charting the Path to Global Religious Freedom, distinguished genuine persecution from the loss of privileged status enjoyed by a specific group.

“Persecution is violence or severe punishment on account of victims’ belief or non-beliefs or membership—real or perceived—in a religious community, combined with a lack of accountability,” he said.

Thames identified four forms of persecution:

• Authoritarian persecution occurs when the state exercises power against religious activity or religious groups, such as in China.
• Extremist persecution takes place when non-state actors and individuals are allowed to commit acts of violence against those who practice a particular religion or fail to adhere to the state-sanctioned religion, such as in Pakistan.
• Terrorist persecution occurs when extremist groups commit acts of extreme violence against particular religious groups, such as ISIS targeting Yazidis and Christians in Iraq.
• Democratic persecution happens when the dominant religious community uses majority rule to trample the rights of adherents of minority religions, such as in India.

The global “pandemic of persecution” does not affect followers of only one religion, said Thames, senior fellow at Pepperdine University.

Rather, it “goes after everyone” and endangers freedom of thought and practice of all wherever it occurs, he stressed.

‘Be light in the darkness’

Christians have the responsibility to pray for all persecuted people and advocate for the religious freedom of every person, Thames emphasized.

“Advocacy demonstrates God’s love in a tangible way,” he said.

Jesus commanded his followers to love their neighbors and commissioned them to make disciples of all people groups everywhere—not just those who are like them, Thames said.

Citing both the Hebrew prophets and the New Testament, he pointed to ways God calls his people to stand up for the rights of the oppressed and vulnerable.

“One small light can pierce the darkness,” Thames said. “We are called to be light in darkness.”

During the gathering at DBU, participants not only prayed for a Christian pastor from Turkey and a Nigerian pastor, but also a representative of Pakistan’s Ahmadiyya Muslim community and a Shia Muslim from the Hazara people of Afghanistan.

Lead with love, start with service

Non-Christians find the gospel more compelling when Christians lead with love and start with service, rather than seek power and exercise privilege, former Houston pastor Steve Bezner said.

Bezner, now associate professor at Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary, spoke in the DBU chapel service during the Global Religious Freedom Gathering.

History, diplomacy and theology should lead Baptists in the United States to care about religious persecution and advocate for the religious freedom of all people, he said.

Baptists in colonial America learned early what it meant to be “on the receiving end of persecution,” said Bezner, citing pastors Roger Williams, Obadiah Holmes and Isaac Backus as examples.

On a practical level today, when Christians in the United States insist on religious freedom for all people domestically, appeals by U.S. diplomats for international human rights carry greater weight, he added.

Theologically, true faith demands the freedom to choose freely, not coerced conformity to mandated religion, said Bezner, author of Your Jesus is Too American: Calling the Church to Reclaim Kingdom Values Over the American Dream.

“Jesus wants all to freely come to him,” he said.

Establish relationships

Bezner recalled the backlash against Muslims when an Islamist extremist killed 49 people and wounded 58 others at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando in 2016—the deadliest mass shooting in American history up to that point.

At the time, Bezner had been pastor of Houston Northwest Church about three years. He felt God leading him to stop at a Houston mosque in the immediate aftermath of the mass shooting and seek to befriend the imam there.

A frank and honest exchange—in which the pastor and the imam each affirmed their distinctive beliefs—provided the foundation for mutual respect and resulted in Bezner receiving invitations to speak at three local mosques.

“The gospel runs on the rail of relationships,” he said.

He also described how members of Houston Northwest Church spent two months in “mud-out” work after Hurricane Harvey hit their city in August 2017.

Church volunteers worked in the flooded homes of their neighbors—many of them non-Christians—clearing out mud, discarding debris, removing damaged drywall and disinfecting surfaces to eliminate mold.

Christians make a lasting impact not by “taking over the White House” but by “going house to house” serving their neighbors, Bezner said.

Peacemaking group receives award

The Global Religious Freedom Gathering at DBU also featured panel discussions involving pastors, international students and advocates from human rights groups focused on religious freedom.

At a dinner held in conjunction with the gathering, the 21Wilberforce human rights organization presented its annual Frank Wolf International Freedom Award to Churches for Middle East Peace. Mae Elise Cannon, executive director of CMEP, accepted the award.

The coalition—representing more than 30 national communions and organizations—mobilizes Christians in the United States to advocate holistically for equality, human rights, security and justice for Israelis, Palestinians and all people of the Middle East.

Previous award recipients include Bob Roberts, co-founder of the Multi-Faith Neighbors Network; Bob Fu, founder of ChinaAid; Sam Brownback, former U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom; Archbishop Ben Kwashi and Gloria Kwashi of Nigeria; and the city of Midland.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The third paragraph from the end was edited after the article initially was published.