Valley church gives Ministry Starting Center concept a test run
___By Ferrell Foster
___Texas Baptist Communications
___LA FERIA--A Sunday School class at First Baptist Church of La Feria does more than meet for Bible study each week. The Esther class has "adopted" a 14-year-old student at Valley Baptist Missions/Education Center in Harlingen and is helping him financially.
___The women's class sends $40 each month to help support the student, whose father is the pastor of four mission congregations in Matamoras, Mexico. The class also has helped with the teenager's medical bills and provided a turkey dinner for the family at Christmas.
___First Baptist has raised ministry outside its building to a new level. Last October, the church created a Ministry Starting Center as a pilot project for the Baptist General Convention of Texas. The church had two lay-led ministries when the center opened, said Pastor Bill Slaughter and center coordinator Mary Watson. It now has 12.
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BGCT taps former Texas DOM
as associate executive director
___NASHVILLE (ABP)--America continues to shift away from the "Ozzie and Harriet" family model of the 1950s, according to the 2000 census figures.
___The changing face of the American household shows fewer traditional families, more homes comprised of unmarried partners and an increase in the number of children living with single parents.
___Fewer than one-fourth (23.5 percent) of American households now are traditional nuclear families--families comprised of married couples with their children. The figure dropped from 25.6 percent in 1990. In 1960, it was 45 percent.
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BGCT offers resources for
teaching children about prayer
___By Ferrell Foster
___Texas Baptist Communications
___EL PASO--Prayer intimidated Terry Gooding as a child. Now she is helping children learn what prayer is all about so they will not have the same fears.
___Gooding led Vista del Sol Baptist Church in El Paso in launching a children's prayer workshop last year. Soon afterward, the church held a second one for younger children. Then other churches in El Paso Baptist Association requested that she lead a workshop.
___Now, the material Gooding wrote is being packaged for distribution statewide later this year, said Ted Elmore, director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas office of prayer and spiritual development.
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