Posted: 3/19/04

Texas Tidbits

Baylor names faith and learning director. Baylor University has named Douglas Henry, assistant professor of philosophy in the university's honors college, as director of Baylor's Institute for Faith and Learning. Henry has been acting director of the institute, whose stated goal is to integrate academic excellence and Christian commitment. He holds a bachelor's degree from Oklahoma Baptist University, and he earned master's and doctorate degrees from Vanderbilt University.

ETBU dean honored. Carolyn Harvey, dean of the Frank S. Groner Endowed Memorial School of Professional Studies department of nursing at East Texas Baptist University, received a Friends of Public Health Award from the Texas Department of Health. The award recognizes groups or individuals committed to improving public health. In October, Harvey led senior ETBU nursing students in a project that included conducting a health assessment of the area surrounding Caddo Lake, along with providing area residents with flu shots, cholesterol and diabetes tests, and information on breast and prostate cancer.

DBU receives gift. Dallas Baptist University received a $100,000 gift from real-estate executive Ebby Halliday that will be used in conjunction with the university's Ruth Ray Hunt Challenge grant. Halliday has been a DBU supporter and benefactor for more than 30 years and has contributed to numerous scholarship funds and building campaigns.

HBU holds lecture series. Houston Baptist University and its department of Christianity and philosophy will sponsor the A.O. Collins Lecture Series April 1-2. Paul Gutjahr from Indiana University is the featured speaker. The lecture series, named in honor of the longtime chairman of the department of Christianity and philosophy, began in 1993 to give recognized scholars an opportunity to address theology, religious studies or philosophy.

UMHB Easter pageant set. The 65th annual University of Mary Hardin-Baylor Easter pageant will be presented three times April 7 on the university campus in Belton. The outdoor reproduction of the passion of Christ–from his triumphal entry into Jerusalem to his crucifixion and resurrection–is free and open to the public. The production is produced, directed, costumed and performed entirely by university students. More than 90 students will participate.

HSU hosts historical association. The 81st annual meeting of the West Texas Historical Association will be held in conjunction with a meeting of the Texas Map Society April 2-3 on the Hardin-Simmons University campus in Abilene. Hardin-Simmons was the birthplace of the regional historical association, and the group was headquartered there 75 years before relocating to Texas Tech University.

Allen to direct Baylor Dallas program. Baylor University's Hankamer School of Business has named Jana Allen director of the executive MBA program, offered at the Cooper Aerobics Center in Dallas. Allen, who holds undergraduate and master's degrees from Dallas Baptist University, has served as assistant director of the graduate program for the last three years and has more than 20 years of experience in program administration, development, recruiting, marketing, communications and education.

HBU names spiritual life director. Houston Baptist University has named Colette Cross director of spiritual life and campus chaplain. Cross has been director of student ministries at the university since August 2000. Before coming to the university, she was a metro campus minister for the Missouri Baptist Convention in Kansas City. Other recent staff additions at HBU include Shirley Crews Taylor as director of human resources, Dennis Huff as director of information systems and Martha Morrow as director of marketing and communications.

Gordon featured Maston lecturer at HSU. Carolyn Gordon, associate professor of church and community at Central Baptist Seminary will be the guest speaker for the annual T.B. Maston Lectures at Hardin-Simmons University's Logsdon School of Theology, April 5-6.

UMHB offers workshop. "Understanding Personality: The Ethical Use of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator in the Social Work Practice" is the focus of an April 22 workshop at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. The workshop will be offered at no cost to social work professionals and will include continuing education credit to meet ethics requirements of licensure. To register, call (254) 295-4555.

ETBU named blood donor of year. Stewart Regional Blood Center recently awarded East Texas Baptist University its college of the year donor award. ETBU collected 204 units during blood drives in 2003, said Charlotte Jordan, recruitment consultant with the blood center. ETBU holds four blood drives a year for the center, which serves the blood needs of patients in more than 41 institutions in a 28-county region. Debra Shelton, nurse recruiter for the ETBU department of nursing, is the local on-campus blood drive coordinator. The next blood drive is April 7-8.

Baylor to offer graduate engineering programs. Baylor University regents recently approved two new master's programs in the school of engineering and computer science, giving the university its first graduate-level programs in engineering. The programs will be offered beginning next fall.

HBU offers summer business academy. The College of Business and Economics at Houston Baptist University will offer its first summer business academy June 7 to 18. High school students entering the 11th or 12th grades can earn three hours of college credit, taking classes in web design or entrepreneurship taught by HBU faculty. To register for the academy, students must supply their SAT or PSAT scores, high school transcripts and a $150 deposit by April 1. Cost of the academy is $495, which includes tuition, books, lunches, transcript and a certificate. For more information, call (281) 649-3130 or e-mail aknapp@hbu.edu.

Posted: 3/19/04

TOGETHER;
Teams asked to provide bold vision

Revisioning and restructuring have captured a lot of attention lately in Baptist General Convention of Texas life. What God wants from churches and what role this convention should play in helping congregations become all God dreams them to be are the questions being considered.

Four teams are seeking God's direction regarding his vision for Texas Baptists. They are praying, sharing ideas and visualizing what our work would look like if we could be gripped by God's passion for us. Laity, ministers–older and younger–and BGCT staff comprise the teams. Additionally, I am working with associational directors of missions, CEOs of our institutions, seminary students and others to get their ideas and concerns on the table.

Undergirding this deliberation and dreaming is a prayer team, quietly working behind the scenes to lift these work groups to the Lord. I have asked them to pray specifically for three things–that we will know the mind of Christ (Philippians 2:5), that we will have wisdom beyond our own (James 1:5) and that we will have courage to move forward as God directs (Joshua 1:9). Please join them in praying.

I share with you the charge I gave to the Executive Board and to each of the four teams as they began their work:

“You and I seek from God a new and passionate vision for Texas Baptists, a vision born in prayer and compelling enough that we will give our lives to see it accomplished unto the glory of God.

“The vision will be bold enough that without God's blessing it cannot be done; but with God's help, every Texas Baptist can find a place to make a lasting difference in the world.

“The vision will be inspired by the mind of Christ as made known to us in Holy Scripture and in the working of the Holy Spirit illuminating our understanding and empowering our souls.

“We acknowledge that churches are the key component in helping any vision come to pass. We celebrate what God is doing in the churches and recognize the deep hunger of many congregations to become all that God dreams for them. We call on the convention, associations, institutions and related ministries to stand with the churches in fulfilling the vision God has given them.

“We want to be a convention fully committed to historic biblical truths and Baptist principles, positioning ourselves to be a convention for the future. We must embrace change both for the short term and long term in order to meet the great challenges and opportunities we have to do evangelism, start missional churches and develop faithful disciples who will change Texas and the world.

“To this end, with input from many of you, I am asking several groups of people to help Texas Baptists see the vision God has in his heart for us. We will bring these groups together and ask God to breathe into us a new vision full of hope that compels us forward.

“Then we will work together to organize our people, processes and resources to achieve the proposed vision. I will bring a progress report to you in our next Executive Board meeting.

“In the meanwhile, our BGCT Executive Board staff will work collaboratively and creatively to serve churches and to be a catalyst to help associations, institutions and related ministries work together to strengthen churches and encourage the achievement of our current vision.”

We are loved.

Posted: 3/19/04

WMU board affirms BWA,
sets $5 million goal for offering

By Ferrell Foster

Texas Baptist Communications

DALLAS–The Woman's Missionary Union of Texas board of directors has affirmed its continuing support for the Baptist World Alliance, the BWA Women's Department and the North American Baptist Women's Union.

The motion, unanimously approved at the board's March meeting, followed a similar move by national WMU.

Both actions are a response to the Southern Baptist Convention's expected pullout from BWA this summer. WMU is an auxiliary to the SBC, while the Women's Department is in the same relationship with the BWA.

“We are saying: 'We will not forget you, … We will join with you,'” to Baptist women around the world, said Carolyn Porterfield, executive director/treasurer of Texas WMU.

Porterfield encouraged Texas WMU members to go to the SBC annual meeting in Indianapolis in June to vote against the proposed defunding, saying, “It's not enough to pass resolutions.”

Texas WMU President Kathy Hillman of Waco described the three entities affirmed in the motion. The BWA is a fellowship of 211 Baptist unions and conventions with 46.5 million believers.

The Women's Department includes seven continental unions representing 132 countries and 229 national Baptist women's organizations. The organization's mission statement says it encourages and celebrates unity in Christ among Baptist women of the world and works toward “peace and reconciliation, justice and development through prayer, witness and service.”

The North American Baptist Women's Union is one of the continental unions comprising the BWA Women's Department. It provides women with information about the BWA, promotes closer relationships between North American women and those in the rest of the world, and suggests opportunities for service, Hillman said.

Three actions in recent years indicate WMU is remaining true to its mission purpose, Porterfield said.

First, support of the BWA demonstrates it.

“We need to speak for the women of the world,” the executive director said.

Second,

since the SBC changed the Baptist Faith & Message in 2000 and subsequent action by the International Mission Board required missionaries to affirm it, WMU has supported both missionaries who have remained on the field and those who refused to sign the document, Porterfield said.

Texas WMU board members demonstrate unity.

Third, Texas WMU's involvement in missions partnerships indicates it is still true to its purpose.

She noted the role of WMU in relating to missions needs in Minnesota-Wisconsin, Mexico, the northeastern portion of the United States and others.

Porterfield, in her report to the board, said Texas WMU ended 2003 $21,011 under budget. It expended $891,988 out of a $913,000 budget.

In other action, the board of directors approved allocations totaling $5 million for this year's Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas Missions.

The budget includes 70 separate line items, with the largest being $1.25 million to assist in starting “missional churches” throughout the state. The goal is 250 such new churches.

The second-largest disbursement will be $983,000 for the Texas WMU operating budgeting.

Other large budget items include $300,000 to help “Key Churches” add church-starting specialists; $255,000 for the Rio Grande River Ministry; $200,000 to help the state's metropolitan associations “reach and disciple the unchurched.” That final allocation is part of $470,000 earmarked for Texas regional association ministries.

If the $5 million Mary Hill Davis Offering goal is not reached, the various ministries will not be fully funded.

Any funds received over the goal will be divided equally between a small-church matching grant fund and new-church support.

Last year, Texas Baptists gave $4.7 million through the offering.

The theme for this year's offering will be “Plant, Water, Harvest,” based on 1 Corinthians 3:6.

The Texas WMU board also heard various reports. Mary Humphries described the Texas Stars effort to raise endowment money for missions.

Money earned by the endowments will be used by Texas WMU to fund leadership development, Christian Women's Job Corps, ministries to missionaries and their families, and other efforts.

Carol Childress, information broker for WorldconneX, reported on the missions networking organization formed last year by the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

WorldconneX now has a five-person staff and an office in Dallas.

“WorldconneX is a response to the kind of world we live in today,” Childress said. It will be an “informational and referral service,” a network that will seek to “connect all these things God is doing.”

Storylist for3/22 issue

Our Front Page Articles
• Missionary narrowly misses Madrid bombing

• Two Texans among Baptist missionaries killed, hurt in Iraq



• Two Texans among Baptist missionaries killed, hurt in Iraq

• Church member's prayers for ethnic inclusiveness answered after 50 years

• Ethnic minorities to chair all seven appointed 2004 BGCT committees

• WMU board affirms BWA, sets $5 million goal for offering

• Call to ministry may be in a variety of vocations, hospital CEO insists

• On the Move

• Around the State

• Texas Tidbits

Deep in the Heart of Texans:
• Range Writer Western author Elmer Kelton

Posted previously on 3/12
• Hardin-Simmons University considers letting students hold dances in campus facilities

• Panhandle preaching conference focuses on reconciliation

• Some ministers' children drawn to life of ministry

• Most preachers' kids reject church, informal survey reveals

• Houston church believes ministry begins at home, particularly among the church staff

• Emergency food shipment arrives in war-torn Haiti

• Evangelicals make mark on society as they bring faith into marketplace, author says



• Missionary narrowly misses Madrid bombing

• Resort missionary takes gospel message to Tahoe ski slopes

• Judge rules Missouri Convention lacks standing for suit; leaders pledge fight

• BWA seeks to put conflict behind, issues statement affirming doctrine

• Baptist Briefs

Posted previously on 3/12
• CBF enters partnership with African Baptists

• NAMB chaplain numbers appear on the rise



• Parents want sex education courses to emphasize abstinence, survey shows

• Teens listen to parents' advice about sex, survey indicates

Posted previously on 3/12
• At 95, Bev Shea still awed by the wonder of it all

• Worship growing more diversified, survey of Protestant churches says

• More 'Buster' pastors, Barna research says

• Churches slow to acknowledge members have problem with pornography


• Gay marriage makes headlines, but it won't sway elections, poll reveals

Posted previously on 3/12
• Hearing held on same-sex marriage

• Park Service opposes funding to preserve Spanish missions

• California court denies Catholic charity religious exemption



• Around the State

• On the Move

• Classified Ads

• Texas Baptist Forum



• EDITORIAL: Christians must insist state support quality education

• Down Home: Coveting leaves sinner 'flushed'

• Together: Teams asked to provide bold vision

• ANOTHER VIEW by Brent Walker: 'Under God' invokes multiple issues

• Texas Baptist Forum



• LifeWay Explore the Bible Series for March 28: Respect for all people marks a healthy church

• LifeWay Family Bible Series for March 28: Act boldly when following God's direction

• LifeWay Explore the Bible Series for April 4: Money matters, but keep it in perspective

• LifeWay Family Bible Series for April 4: Christ's suffering was born out of his great love


See articles from previous issue 3/08/04 here.