Baptist Briefs
___ MSCers gather. Mission Service Corps volunteers gathered for breakfast Oct. 31 during the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual session to celebrate a year of successful mission work in Texas and around the world. Director Sam Pearis reported that 1,236 Texas Baptists currently serve with Mission Service Corps, with the majority (1,090) serving in Texas. Texans make up nearly half of the total Mission Service Corps volunteers serving throughout the United States, Canada, the U.S. Virgin Islands and American Samoa, Pearis said.
___ Partership missions celebrated. About 200 Texas Baptists gathered before the Tuesday morning meeting of the Baptist General Convention of Texas to learn about the latest developments in partnership missions. BGCT officials reported that Texas Baptists wrapped up a partnership with Australia Baptists this year but new links have been established with Baptists in Nanjing, China; Spain; eastern Cuba; Germany; and both the northwestern and northeastern regions of the United States. Also, a Lay Envoy movement is helping Texas Baptists who work overseas to have an impact for Christ in different places, said Don Sewell, director of Texas Partnerships. Special guests at the breakfast meeting included Jorge Pastor, pastor of the Baptist church in Denia, Spain, and Charles Barnes, coordinator of Impact Northeast.
___ SBTC hopes to replace funds. The Southern Baptists of Texas Convention formed in opposition to the Baptist General Convention of Texas announced a plan Oct. 31 to help make up funds Southern Baptist Convention agencies will lose due to BGCT budget changes. The "Great Commission Partners in the Harvest" program will send half of any budget overages this year to make up money lost from the BGCT at the six SBC seminaries, Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and Executive Committee. Morris Chapman, president of the SBC Executive Committee, is scheduled to address a Feb. 8 luncheon sponsored by SBTC and challenge 100 churches to give $10,000 above current Cooperative Program gifts to provide a $1 million gift to offset the cuts by the BGCT.
___ Church raises $3.2 million in a day. Members of First Baptist Church of Orlando, Fla., pledged more than $3.2 million Oct. 30 to purchase and build on property adjoining their current location. Pastor Jim Henry had asked every member to give the equivalent of one week's salary. The 8.2 acre site will be used to build a retirement community for seniors, a counseling center and expansion of the church's crisis pregnancy center.
___ Day of prayer set. Nov. 12 has been declared the annual day of prayer for the persecuted church. Resources are available online at www.persecutedchurch.org.
___ Ninth "Mainstream" group begins. A group of pastors who say they want to preserve historic Baptist principles and protect the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina and its institutions has taken steps toward the formation of a "Mainstream Baptists" group. North Carolina is the ninth state to form a centrist/moderate network patterned loosely after Texas Baptists Committed.