May 27, 2002

Missions challenges, reports highlight BGCT spring Executive Board meeting
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___DALLAS--Missions challenges and reports dominated the May 21 meeting of the Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board.
___Aside from electing a new chief financial officer (see related story), the board faced one of its lightest business agendas in recent years.
___Kathy Hillman, president of Texas Woman's Missionary Union, challenged board members to provide "water for a thirsty land," the theme of this year's Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas missions.
___She told about the drought conditions currently afflicting the Texas borderlands around El Paso. Then she compared the physical drought there to a spiritual drought, urging Texas Baptists to pour out their witness to the love of God on people who thirst for spiritual answers.
___BGCT President Bob Campbell, pastor of Westbury Baptist Church in Houston, picked up that theme in his report as well. He specifically focused on the work of Hispanic Baptist Theological School to prepare ministers for the state's burgeoning Hispanic population.
___Campbell turned over part of his time to Albert Reyes, president of the San Antonio school.
___"Hispanics in Texas represent modern-day Samaritans who are looking for spiritual answers," Reyes said, drawing an analogy to the New Testament account of Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman at the well and telling her he could provide "living water" so that she would never thirst again.
___"Will we follow the Master into our present-day Samaria?" he asked.
___Campbell then urged Executive Board members to invite Hispanic School students into their churches to preach and sing and to tell about the missions needs in the state.
___BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade continued the missions theme, noting that Texas has the second-largest Hispanic population among all 50 states. Texas also has the second-largest African-American population and third-largest Anglo population, he added.
___Rather than being threatened by cultural changes, Texas Baptists should "look upon people as the field that is ready for harvest," he admonished. "We are here to be God's people, advancing the kingdom of God."
___This will require new ways of thinking about missions and ministry, Wade said. "You don't reach people for Christ by doing things the same way you always have done them."
___Churches are the front-line approach to meeting the state's spiritual needs, Wade said, explaining that the BGCT is attempting to listen to its churches and learn what is being done effectively.
___"Our churches in Texas are not waiting for someone to tell them how to do missions. They are doing missions."
___A major hurdle to overcome, he suggested, is the temptation of some denominational leaders, some pastors and some lay leaders to want to control everything the church or convention does. He compared the problem to a popular arcade game where rubber animals pop up from a console and the player's task is to pound the animals down with a mallet.
___"The world is too lost and too broken for us to be knocking people in the head and saying, 'You can't do that,'" Wade declared.
___Creative new ways of doing missions and ministry must "bubble up in people's hearts like a vision," he said.
___The BGCT's role, he added, is "to help churches claim the future God has for them. ... We want churches to feel free to dream the biggest dreams God can give them."
___In other business and reports, the Executive Board:
___ Approved sale of the Baptist Student Center at Rice University and Houston Medical Center. The building primarily has been used for office space and a few meetings. Methodist Health Care System will purchase the building for $775,000, and the Baptist Student Ministry will lease space in a new building. About two-thirds of the proceeds from the sale will be placed in an endowment to support Houston-area Baptist Student Ministry. The remaining third will be used for renovation of other Baptist Student Centers in Texas.
___ Approved plans to sell the Baptist Student Center building at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. The 50-year-old house needs significant repairs, and an advisory committee has recommended selling the building and conducting Baptist Student Ministry meetings in campus facilities made available by SMU. Neither a price nor a buyer has been identified yet.
___ Allocated $604,965 in unrestricted current funds from last year's budget to be placed in the BGCT's contingency reserve account. The overage came from interest earned on investments.
___ Accepted the clean audit without notation of the BGCT's books for 2001.
___ Approved a budget goal of $47.5 million for 2003, the same amount as the current year's budget. The budget recommendation further stipulates that the convention's new strategic plan "direct the 2003 BGCT budget priorities."
___ Elected two men to fill vacant terms on the trustee board of East Texas Baptist University: Don Anthis, a member of Champion Forest Baptist Church in Houston, and Harlan Hall, minister of music at First Baptist Church of Longview.
___ Heard an update from Clyde Glazener, chairman of the convention's Missions Review & Initiatives Committee. The committee currently is conducting listening sessions across the state and has been gathering information from BGCT agencies and institutions, he reported.
___ Learned that negotiations for a proposed merger of Baptist Health System in San Antonio with Christus Santa Rosa Health Care have terminated unsuccessfully and that other options are being explored.
___ Learned that Jerry Johnson, a former Texas director of missions, is serving as interim president of the Valley Baptist Missions/Education Center and that the institution's board of trustees is working to discover a vision for the Harlingen center's future.
___

Get printer-friendly version of this story


Send this story to a friend



News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

---

Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!/ Signup for FirstLook