Baptist Briefs
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Ross to Southwestern. Richard Ross, an architect of the True Love Waits sexual abstinence campaign, is joining the faculty of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth. Ross will leave his post as youth ministry consultant with LifeWay Christian Resources in Nashville, Tenn., to begin teaching youth ministry courses at Southwestern this fall. He is a graduate of Hardin-Simmons University and Southwestern Seminary.
___ Kenley serves CBF. Paul Kenley, pastor of Baptist Temple in Houston, has been elected a national officer of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Kenley will serve as CBF secretary.
___ Disputed program airs. A controversial interview with Jerry Falwell aired on the national radio program of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission July 25. The broadcast of "For Faith & Family" hosted by Richard Land did not include Falwell's previously reported comments calling on Southern Baptists to defeat Al Gore in this year's presidential election just as they helped defeat Jimmy Carter in 1980. Land's office issued a lengthy news release the next day explaining the omission of those particular comments was part of the natural editing process and was in no way influenced by a warning from Americans United for Separation of Church and State that airing Falwell's comments would jeopardize the Southern Baptist Convention's tax-exempt status.
___ Spurgeon running in Missouri. Former Foreign Mission Board administrator Harlan Spurgeon will be a candidate for the presidency of the Missouri Baptist Convention this fall, with backing from a group called Mainstream Missouri Baptists. The Mainstream group and a conservative group called Project 1000 are running a close race to influence the future of the state convention.
___ Texas teens take SonPower. Youth from six Texas Baptist churches participated in SonPower, an annual music event for student or youth choirs at the Sheraton World Resort in Orlando, Fla., July 10-14. Texas churches with participating youth were First Baptist Church of Waskom, First Baptist Church of The Woodlands, Highland Terrace Baptist Church of Greenville, First Baptist Church of Pflugerville, Second Baptist Church of Corpus Christi, Memorial Baptist Church of Channelview.
___ BGCT staffers suffer heart woes. Two administrators at the Baptist Building in Dallas have been hospitalized in the last two weeks with heart problems, and another continues rehabilitation. Jim Furgerson, executive director-treasurer of Texas Baptist Men, had a relatively mild heart attack July 18. He had angioplasty and two stints installed at Baylor Medical Center July 25 and was slated to begin cardiac rehabilitation July 31. Roger Hall, treasurer and chief financial officer for the Baptist General Convention of Texas, had an angiogram at Baylor July 21. It revealed that a defective heart valve that doctors had been monitoring for three years had narrowed significantly. He was scheduled to have heart valve replacement surgery July 31. Herb Pedersen, director of the BGCT missions division, had a heart attack May 25, followed by emergency surgery to install a stint. Contrary to an early assessment, a scan last week determined that the cardiac arrest caused no permanent muscle damage to the heart, Pedersen said.
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