May 12, 1999
Missions Commission hires 4 staffers
___By Marv Knox
___Editor
___The Texas Baptist State Missions Commission approved a 2000 budget of almost $12.6 million and hired four workers at its April 22 meeting.
___The State Missions Commission provides leadership and support for a range of ministries and programs conducted by the Baptist General Convention of Texas and its affiliated churches and associations statewide.
___The largest segment of the budget, $1.9 million (17 percent of the total), will be allocated to the BGCT's Sunday school/discipleship division. The division supports Bible study and various other training programs and ministries in Texas Baptist churches.
___The next-largest segment, $1.4 million (12 percent), will fund the Texas Baptist Church Starting Center, which has been mandated to help Texas Baptists launch congregations, particularly among groups and in places not effectively reached by the gospel. That budget also is supplemented by revenue from other sources.
___The commission hopes Texas Baptists will start "a church a day"--366 new congregations--in 2000, James Semple, the commission's director, reported.
___ The budget also includes $1.2 million for the commission's administration and coordination of work with Baptist associations across the state. This includes almost $400,000 to assist 33 associations that could not afford to employ a director of missions without state support, Semple said.
___Other budget allocations include evangelism, $1.3 million; bivocational/smaller-church development, $215,863; black church development, $185,378; ethnic missions coordination, $885,011; church facilities support and consultation, $563,418; church ministries, $950,909; creative church development, $413,729;
___Also the River Ministry program, $601,996; church music, $415,401; church stewardship, $558,187; the Texas Baptist Leadership Center, $197,975; Texas Partnerships, $600,000; and Mission Service Corps, $504,675.
___The total budget is $372,936 (3 percent) larger than the current $12.2 million budget.
___"Rather than slowing down, we are picking up the pace" of efforts to reach the goals of Texas 2000, the BGCT's evangelism/ministry/church-starting campaign, Semple stressed.
___Texas 2000 is a strategic plan that challenges Texas Baptists to present the gospel to every person in the state by 2000 and to start 1,400 congregations in five years.
___"God is multiplying this budget," Semple said. Through the River Ministry, Texas Baptists are supporting 69 medical clinics along the Rio Grande for $1,000 each. Noting the government might spend $1 million each to launch a similar number of clinics, he observed that God is multiplying Texas Baptists' contributions 1,000-fold.
___New staff members elected by the commission are:
___Pat Ekern, designer/ draftsperson in the church facilities department.
___Recently, Ekern has been a Mission Service Corps volunteer with the Southern Baptist International Mission Board in Japan. She was an intern architect for Master's House and Glorious Company, organizations that design churches and mission houses for the Japan Baptist Mission. She previously worked with the BGCT as a draftsperson.
___
___Hale is director of missions for Concho Valley Baptist Association in the San Angelo area. Previously, he was pastor of ministries and pastor of education and evangelism at Henderson Hills Baptist Church in Edmond, Okla.; minister of education at First Baptist Church in Moore, Okla.; and associate pastor of education and evangelism at Park Heights Baptist Church in San Angelo and Ridglea West Baptist Church in Fort Worth.
___
___Since 1993, she has been a school social worker in San Antonio. She also has been a Southern Baptist Home Mission Board intern at Walnut Street Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky.; a social worker with Habitat for Humanity; and a social worker and child-care worker with Buckner Baptist Benevolences in San Antonio.
___
___Young is a regional program administrator with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's chaplaincy department. He also has been a chaplain at prisons in Huntsville and Gatesville and pastor of West Oaks Baptist Church in Bryan, Trinity Baptist Church in Gatesville, Trinity Baptist Church in Bryan, Horizon City Baptist Church in El Paso and First Baptist Church in Avery.
Frontpage / Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!