Posted: 12/01/06

Posted: 12/01/06

2nd Opinion:
Time to implement year-end tax tips

By Sherre Stephens

Think it’s too early to start preparing for tax season? A recent flurry of tax legislation, as well as expiring tax credits and deductions that Congress may retroactively extend at year’s end call for early preparation despite a later filing date in 2007—April 18.

Here are five basic things you need to know:

Get organized. Start now and use a checklist. Checklists facilitate organization and minimize frustration. Many checklists are available on the Internet. Just search for “checklists for tax preparation.”

Identify last-minute savings opportunities.

• Maximize retirement plan elective deferrals. The basic deferral limit is $15,000 ($20,000 for age 50 or older).

• Contribute to a traditional IRA. The limit for taxpayers younger than age 70 1/2 with sufficient income is $4,000 ($5,000 for age 50 or older). Consider an IRA for the nonworking spouse. To qualify, the couple must be legally married at year’s end and file a joint tax return.

• Coordinate capital gains and losses. Review stock and other capital assets. Are some ripe for sale? Such tax harvesting can offset gains with losses thereby lowering taxable net gains.

Make the most of tax deductions.

• Itemize deductions. The list of possible deductions is myriad, and some impose thresholds in order to take the deduction.

• Make a direct transfer from an IRA to a qualified charity. Taxpayers age 70 1/2 and older may transfer up to $100,000 to a qualified charity tax-free. The transaction must go directly from an IRA to the charity. Don’t wait until the last minute. Many IRA providers have cut-off dates for year-end transactions—some as early as Dec. 15.

• Donate clothing and household items. Contributions of clothing and household items made after Aug. 17, 2006, are not deductible unless the property is in good used condition or better.

Take advantage of tax credits. A tax credit reduces tax, whereas a deduction reduces the amount of taxable income.

• Child Tax Credit. This credit can reduce taxes up to $1,000 for each qualifying child. For more information, see IRS Tax Tip 2006-45.

• Retirement Savings Contributions Credit. Taxpayers eligible to contribute to an employer-sponsored retirement plan or an IRA may qualify for this credit (up to $1,000, or $2,000 if filing jointly). See IRS Tax Tip 2006-49.

• Hybrid Car Tax Credit. The credit, $400 to $3,400, is available for qualifying vehicles purchased after Dec. 31, 2005.

• Qualifying Alternative Fuel Vehicles. Purchase of an AFV between Jan. 1, 2005 and Dec. 31, 2010 may yield a tax credit of up to $4,000.

• Home Energy Efficiency Improvement Tax Credits. Purchase and installation of energy-efficient products qualify for a tax credit of up to $500. Additional credit is available for some other qualified purchases and applies only to the taxpayer’s principal U.S. residence. The total credit caps at $2,000.

• Earned Income Tax Credit. Generally available to taxpayers with 2006 earned income under $38,348, the EITC may also provide a refund.

Know where to go for help. The IRS website, www.IRS.gov, offers a number of fact sheets, tax tips and a toll-free help number. The Internet offers copious tax helps, but use caution, since some tips may or may not be reliable.

Tax preparation software and services are viable resources.

Sherre Stephens is a certified employee benefits specialist and director of executive and institutional benefit design for GuideStone Financial Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. This educational information is not intended as legal or tax advice. Individuals with legal or tax questions should consult a legal or tax adviser who can provide specific information to the unique situation.

Posted: 12/01/06

DOWN HOME:
No place like ‘home’

We’ve got another home.

No, the Baptist Standard didn’t hand me a big, fat bonus so I could go out and buy a second place out in the Hill Country or down by the beach. And I haven’t signed a blockbuster movie deal based on “Down Home.” (Who would play me in the movie? Some folks might pick George Clooney or Brad Pitt, but I’d go for Ray Romano or Matthew Perry. In my universe, funny trumps sexy.)

If you’ve met me on this side of the page the past few months, you probably know Joanna and I bought another house late this summer. We sold the home in Lewisville where we raised our girls and bought another one in Coppell, way closer to work.

Our house seemed like home from the start. It feels like it was built for us, even though we didn’t find it for a long time. Now, except for hanging pictures in a hallway and trimming bushes, we’re pretty much settled. And since the “new” neighborhood is about twice as old as as the “old” one, we enjoy the trees and developed yards.

But for the record: We don’t own a second home. This is the only one we’ve got.

Still, Jo and I have another home. It’s an apartment in Orlando, Fla. We visited it for the first time during Thanksgiving. It’s where our oldest daughter, Lindsay, and her husband, Aaron, live. A part of Jo and me goes wherever our kids abide.

Molly lives in a funky loft apartment in Waco with five other Baylor coeds. Lindsay lived in Abilene in, ummm, two apartments with I can’t remember how many Hardin-Simmons coeds and then in a duplex with Aaron for a semester.

Although I would’ve loved to have lived in a loft like Molly’s when I was a student at Hardin-Simmons, I’ve tried to figure out why I haven’t thought of the girls’ collegiate housing quite the way I feel about where Lindsay and Aaron live now. The deal, I’ve decided, is college seems/seemed so temporary. In college, things can change from semester to semester. In college, the kids are home for a month at Christmas, and they just might be home for the summer.

Now, however, Lindsay and Aaron have moved halfway across the country, and they have set up housekeeping entirely on their own. They’re there, making a life for themselves. And no matter how far away it is, our hearts are with them, feeling a wee bit like Florida residents. If only we could get their sunshine and fresh oranges.

During our trip to Orlando, I reflected on something my mother has talked about for years. Jo and I have lived in 11 residences in six communities. Mother always said she never could feel settled until she visited each place the first time, so she could see where we lived and spent our time.

When we walked into Lindsay and Aaron’s apartment, I realized what had been nagging me since last summer—I never could picture them until I knew what their “place” looks and feels like.

So, I’m better now. And I take comfort in knowing that even though our kids are too far away for our daily hugs, they’re still in the embrace of their Heavenly Father.

— Marv Knox

Posted: 12/01/06

EDITORIAL:
Wanted: More compelling Christians

How—and with whom—should Christians cooperate?

This issue surfaced again in the past few days, when some fundamentalist Christians demanded California pastor Rick Warren remove Sen. Barack Obama (D.-Ill.) from the program of his global AIDS summit because Obama does not oppose abortion.

Warren’s ministry innovation spans almost three decades, since he started Saddleback Church in his California apartment in the late 1970s. The church engages about 20,000 worshippers each week. It has started scores of congregations, and his training conferences have helped thousands of pastors. Purpose Driven Ministries—based on his books The Purpose Driven Church and The Purpose Driven Life—has impacted millions of people. The AIDS summit is a key ingredient in Warren’s latest initiative, the P.E.A.C.E. plan, which ministers to the people Jesus called “the least of these.” P.E.A.C.E. plans to plant churches, equip servant leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick and educate the next generation.

The AIDS summit took aim at two of the P.E.A.C.E. initiatives, assisting the poor and caring for the sick. The P.E.A.C.E. website reports more than 40 million people are infected with HIV/AIDS. Compassion International notes more than 25 million people have died of AIDS, nine out of 10 children with AIDS live in Africa, and 25 million children will lose both parents to AIDS in the next four years. Warren’s efforts embody the gospel. One can only wonder what might happen if all those pastors who looked to Warren to help build up their congregations would follow his lead in P.E.A.C.E. Our planet would be a vastly better place.

A brilliant marketer and inspired networker, Warren recruited renowned religious leaders to participate in the AIDS summit. They included Richard Stearns, president of World Vision; Franklin Graham, founder of Samaritan’s Purse; Emmanuel Kolini, archbishop of the Anglican Church of Rwanda; and Wess Stafford, president of Compassion International. He also tapped leaders from other fields, including rock singer Bono, Bill and Melinda Gates, Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) and Obama.

Still, the conservative activists criticized Warren and Obama because the Illinois senator is pro-choice. Interestingly, they overlooked flaws in other participants. Bono’s conscience-driven music positively stirs millions of listeners, but he has used the F-word on television. Bill Gates is an agnostic who once responded to a question about God’s existence by saying: “I don’t have any evidence of that. … Religion is not very efficient. There’s a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning.” So, Obama, a Christian brother who testifies to the role Christ plays in his life and supports his words with deeds of compassion and mercy, should be ineligible to help eradicate AIDS because of his views on abortion? Go figure.

This incident parallels the decision of Florida pastor Joel Hunter to resign as president-elect of the Christian Coalition because he could not convince other leaders of the staunchly pro-life organization to broaden its focus to include such issues as poverty and the environment. And just when you hoped evangelicals were poised to provide positive leadership for our country.

Don’t get lost in the woods: This is not an abortion endorsement. I stand with the Baptist General Convention of Texas’ repeated denunciations of abortion except for cases of rape, incest and when the mother’s life is in danger. I concur with the BGCT’s condemnation of the heinous partial-birth abortion, as well as its call for parental consent before a minor can receive an abortion. Abortion is a blight on our society, and we should seek to eliminate it—particularly, as Obama has supported—by channeling our efforts to eliminate its causes through myriad means, including reducing poverty, promoting abstinence and improving the adoption process.

The activists’ action is appalling, not because of their view of abortion, but because of their view of Christian cooperation. We should not be required to agree on every issue or pass a litmus test in order to work together to achieve a common good or eradicate a pandemic evil.

Where are the Christians whose faith is strong and resilient enough to labor alongside others who may be very much unlike them but who share a common concern? We need more Christians who possess generous spirits, thick skins, soft hearts, keen minds and entrepreneurial spirits. Christians who don’t worry about being accused of associating with the wrong crowd as long as they’re working on the right causes. We need them to help eradicate AIDS and eliminate abortions. We need them to mediate peaceful relationships between adversarial enemies. We need them to live winsome, reconciling lives in their communities.

They will do more to win the world to Christ and overcome the world’s evils than all the anti-oriented Christians will accomplish in 490 lifetimes.

Marv Knox is editor of the Baptist Standard.

Posted: 12/01/06

MK carries on legacy
through gift to Nigeria hospital

By Barbara Bedrick

Texas Baptist Communications

DALLAS—Many people renew family ties at Christmas. For Mary Kay Posey, the trip home takes 19 hours. But when she returns to Nigeria this month to deliver a Texas-sized gift, it gives her the chance to carry on the legacy of her medical missionary parents.

“We were expecting a miracle, but what we got was so much more,” she said.

Posey meets with residents and staff at a leper colony near Eku Baptist Hospital. • Watch video from CBS11 News in Dallas on Posey's trip.

Posey plans to return to Eku, Nigeria, with two 18-wheeler-sized containers filled with operating room equipment and medical supplies—a shipment facilitated by the Baptist General Convention of Texas, Healthcare Outreach Network, Texas Baptist Men and Walking in Love Ministries, a nonprofit organization Posey and her husband, Fred, formed last year.

“It’s the dream of a missionary kid, to go back to Eku and share the love of Jesus,” she said.

More than 60 years ago, Posey’s parents helped start the Eku Baptist Hospital about a mile from a lepers’ colony and a tuberculosis camp.

“I remember reaching in with my small hands to pull two twins from their mother during a Caesarean section,” Posey said. “When I was old enough, I taught little girls about Jesus in Sunbeams class.”

Growing up in Nigeria, Posey witnessed the effects of hunger, inadequate medical care and devastating disease.

She and her husband have traveled to Nigeria with supplies four times in the past two years. They plan to make three visits a year to Nigeria. These two-week to four-week trips will involve volunteer doctors, medical personnel, teachers and other people who want to share Christ’s love and minister to needs they have discovered in Nigeria.

“It’s been heart-wrenching,” Posey said. “With the loss of support from the International Mission Board, the hospitals have struggled to stay alive.”

A shift in the mission board’s strategy in 2000 dramatically reduced funding for the Eku Baptist Hospital, leaving it without the money to hire doctors, nurses and other staff or to fund operations.

The Eku hospital serves one-third of Nigeria, and the nearest Baptist hospital is eight hours away.

The Christmas gift from Texas Baptists will help save lives at three Nigerian Baptist hospitals—in Eku, Ogbomoso and Saki.

Healthcare Outreach Network, an organization launched by the BGCT institutional ministries office made the shipment possible. For several years, some Baptist hospitals offered used equipment to the Baptist hospital in Guadalajara, Mexico, through medical missionary Lee Baggett. With the project’s success, hospital administrators and BGCT representatives began discussing how they could expand their effort, and Healthcare Outreach Network developed. After changes in IMB funding, the global medical outreach need grew urgent as hospitals and clinics overseas struggled to survive.

Ben McKibbens, former CEO of Valley Baptist Health System, serves as volunteer executive director for Healthcare Outreach Network.

“We’re trying to bridge the gap left behind,” said Keith Bruce, director of the BGCT institutional ministries office. “At least nine Texas and national hospitals are ready to offer support motivationally, financially and physically through medical supplies and equipment to hospitals like those in need in Nigeria.

“These are the first large containers of medical supplies and equipment we have sent to a developing nation. We were aware of the need of the Baptist hospital in Ogbomoso, and we’re glad to be able to provide medical assistance to those desperately in need.”

BGCT Medical Missions Coordinator Shirley Shofner helped bring the medi-cal resources together—involving not only Baylor Medical Center and Valley Baptist Hospital, but also Children’s Medical Center of Dallas, the Christian Community Action in Lewisville, Heart to Heart of Kansas City, Mo., and Supplies Overseas of Louisville, Ky.

“It’s awesome what the Lord has done,” Shofner said. “Children’s Medical Center was remodeling its operating rooms and provided us operating-room suites, including tables and lights.”

With only two physicians on staff, the Eku hospital still desperately needs doctors. Nourished by only beans and rice, the hospital staff is loyal and compassionate but extremely overworked and underpaid, Posey noted. Walking in Love often wires $1,000 checks to feed the unpaid staff for a month.

“We’ve found the names of four doctors who are willing to come,” Posey explained. “But we need $30,000 for first-year salaries for each one. More than 200 people are currently on staff, but the hospital only has funding for one month’s salary, $25,000, excluding the doctors.”

Texas Baptist Men volunteers built crates for the supplies and loaded them in containers, and Posey is working with TBM to build an orphanage not far from the hospital in Eku. For now, Posey looks forward to delivering a Christmas gift that will improve the lives of many less-fortunate people a world away from Texas.

Posted: 12/01/06

Church gives thanks by giving back

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

EL PASO—Members of Lakeside Baptist Church in El Paso gave thousands of hungry people in Juarez something to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.

Church members were the primary preparers of Thanksgiving meals for more than 20,000 people Nov. 24-25. The effort is part of an outreach coordinated by Hands of Luke Medical Ministries, an organization led by Marco Samaniego, pastor of Lakeside Baptist.

Christians from throughout Texas and beyond came together to donate food, prepare it and serve it in conjunction with Juarez churches, who continue ministering to people after they have fed them.

People were open to hearing the gospel after their physical needs were met, Samaniego said. Conversations were started through the Thanksgiving outreach that led to life-changing decisions—about 800 professions of faith in Christ.

Leo Samaniego, mission and evangelism coordinator for Hands of Luke Medical Ministries, said Christians are eager to bless others as God has blessed them.

“We have been blessed by God in so many ways that we need to share those blessings,” Leo Samaniego said.

“This is a Thanksgiving effort. We’re giving God thanks for what he’s given, and out of that we’re giving back.”

Marco Samaniego sees the biblical miracle of multiplying fish and loaves happen every year.

Organizers rely on donations to feed the hungry, but they never are lacking in supplies when it’s time to serve.

“We feed people abundantly,” he said. “We’re not skimpy about it. And after we’re done feeding these people, we have a freezer or two of turkey.”

Posted: 12/01/06

ETBU students serve in Sabine Pass

By Mike Midkiff

East Texas Baptist University

MARSHALL—Two student groups from East Texas Baptist University responded to a request by Texas Baptist Men Disaster Relief to help meet ongoing needs in Southeast Texas one year after Hurricane Rita.

“I received a phone call from a TBM representative asking if ETBU students would help with a tremendous need to gut houses and hang sheetrock,” said Allan Thompson, director of the university’s Great Commission Center.

“After the phone call, I went walking on campus and ran into the student president of Pi Sigma fraternity. He asked me unsolicited about doing a mission project. Later, I announced in a chapel service the need in Sabine Pass, and the baseball team responded as well.”

Sixty volunteers left the ETBU campus the weekend before Thanksgiving to help residents of Sabine Pass.

Earlier, during the ETBU fall break, another student group went to Metairie, La., to help Celebration Church in its efforts to bounce back after Hurricane Katrina.

In Sabine Pass, student missionaries gutted the inside of a house, hung sheetrock in a home being rebuilt after a tornado destroyed it, tore down a rotted porch in order for a new one to be built, shingled a roof, put beams in place for a new roof, built a foundation for a ramp and deck, and hung siding on a house.

“The most refreshing part of the trip for me was hearing this phrase over and over again: ‘What more can we do? We want to do more,’” said ETBU admissions counselor and Pi Sigma sponsor Joey Sutton. “This trip was definitely not a comfortable trip, but I think being able to serve someone firsthand as opposed to just giving money to a charity was rewarding for all those who went.” 

Tiger Baseball Coach Sam Blackmon said his team took part in the mission trip for two reasons. The trip allowed the players to be involved in community service, and it put them in a situation to appreciate the things they have.

“I was impressed with the generosity and warmth of the people we went to help,” Blackmon said. “The attitude they displayed after suffering through what they went through was amazing to see. Some are still living in FEMA trailers. And yet they still have the hope and courage to move forward.”

The hopeful spirit displayed by a local resident impressed Ren Watkins.

“At lunch one day, an elderly man named Marshall sat down with me,” said Watkins, a religion major from Houston. “He shared with me that the hurricane had taken everything he had. Marshall showed me what it looks like when you trust in God when you have nothing on this earth but him.”             

Posted: 12/01/06

Ethiopian church employs
indigenous missionaries

By George Henson

Staff Writer

GARLAND—Through an innovative plan employing indigenous missionaries, even Sunday school classes can afford to reach Muslims in Ethiopia.

Pastor Bedilu Yirga of Ethiopian Evangelical Baptist Church in Garland and his congregation have partnered with churches in Ethiopia to reach members of the Berta tribe, who live along the border of Ethiopia and Sudan.

Churches in Bambasi are calling out members to become missionaries among the Berta people, who are predominantly Muslim. This area was closed to Christian influence for many years, but a change in leadership recently has allowed this type of outreach to become reality, Yirga said.

“They give us missionaries to share the gospel with the Berta tribe. They have a real burden to reach these people,” he said.

After the local church chooses spiritually mature people as missionaries to the surrounding villages, pastors from Addis Ababa come to Bambasi to train them to do the work more effectively.

While it would be nice to go there and do the training with members of his church, Yirga said, it is much more cost efficient to pay for the training by people who already are there.

The goal is to reach 30 villages, each with its own missionary. One of the first jobs for the missionaries is to set up a school for preschool children in the area. The plan calls for 10 preschools to be built so children can become prepared for enrollment in one of the two elementary schools participants hope to build in about two years.

Construction of the schools not only will help provide an education for children who have no other avenue for learning, but also will provide jobs for the many poor people in the area, Yirga said.

Christian schools also would provide an avenue to teach children about Christ, he added.

Yirga went to Ethiopia to meet partners in the project last September on an exploratory visit. Early this year, the first missionaries were trained.

“The Berta are primarily Muslim and won’t be easy to reach with Christianity,” he acknowledged. But already they have observed early successes.

“In our last reports, we learned that the gospel had been shared with more than 500 people, and 53 of those made professions of faith in Christ. We would do whatever and spend any amount for one person, and now we already have reached 53,” Yirga exclaimed.

While each missionary in the field makes quarterly written reports, someone from Yirga’s congregation will travel to Ethiopia each January to inspect and verify the written reports, he said.

Twenty missionaries are reaching area villages, but Yirga said at least 10 more are needed. He hopes other churches will partner in the project so that the other villages also can be reached.

Each missionary’s monthly salary can be paid with $50, and $150 a month not only pays the missionary’s salary, but provides the tools needed to do ministry, Yirga said.

A Laotian congregation and a Brazilian congregation have agreed to support two missionaries on an ongoing basis, as has a church in Spain.

“I’m trying to communicate with other ethnic churches to stand with us and minister somewhere other than their own lands,” he said. “Maybe next time the Brazilian church will have a project, we can assist them with.”

“The ethnic churches are not just here for themselves, but to support the work back home.”

Expense is minimal, he noted.

“This is very cheap economically,” Yirga pointed out. “If we were to send one missionary from the United States, it would cost much more than this.

“Also, this is a part of the world with a great deal of unrest. Often it gets bad, and the (foreign) missionaries have to leave the area until it calms down. Already, two of our missionaries have reported persecution, but they have no place to go, so they must stay and pray for God’s protection.”

But Yirga is quick to offer his appreciation to U.S. missionaries who travel the world spreading the gospel.

“I’m very indebted to foreign missionaries who went to Ethiopia and shared the gospel with me, and some even gave their lives for the gospel. But it is high time to trust nationals to do the work among their own people,” he said.

As the ministry continues, digging water wells will begin.

“Some women walk as far as an hour for water and then wait in line two or three hours and then have to walk the hour back home. All that to get water that is not clean or sanitary,” he said.

Building schools and digging wells will require more funds, and Yirga is praying that other congregations will see the need and contribute to the ministry.

To learn more about the Bambasi project, contact Yirga at (214) 677-6555.

Posted: 12/01/06

Glad tidings… to all people

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

Luke’s Gospel account of Christ’s birth describes how angels announced to shepherds good tidings of great joy for all people. But 2,000 years later, more than one-fourth—perhaps many more—of the world’s people still haven’t heard the good news or seen evidence of it.

Estimates vary widely regarding the number of least-evangelized people and unreached people groups.

The Joshua Project, a ministry of the U.S. Center for World Mission, identifies 6,514 unreached people groups numbering 2.6 billion—40 percent of the world population.

The Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board identifies 2,040 unreached people groups of 100,000 or more. The board’s global research department also lists 3,349 people groups, with a total population of more than 614 million, who are unreached and not engaged by anyone.

Various groups define “unreached” in different ways, but many missions agencies and networks agree at least 28 percent of the world’s people lack access to the gospel.

A Wolof Christian tells a Bible story in a village northeast of Dakar, Senegal. She was disowned by her family after becoming a believer, and her children were taken away because of her faith in Jesus. (IMB photo)

Surprisingly, many missions groups across denominational lines also have strikingly similar goals—to share the gospel through both word and deed in culturally relevant ways and that result in church-planting movements.

“It’s a holistic approach. Sometimes we speak in terms of transformational church planting movements, where congregations plant congregations that then plant congregations, all of which transform their communities,” said Kent Parks with Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Global Missions.

Not all unreached people groups live in remote, inaccessible locations, said Parks, a Hardin-Simmons University graduate who has spent much of his life in Southeast Asia.

Some live in major urban centers, but they lack access to the gospel because of cultural, political, socio-economic or language barriers, he noted.

Effectively presenting the gospel message to unreached people involves approaching them at their level of understanding and in a culturally appropriate way. For example, rather than presenting a systematic list of spiritual laws or steps toward God, many missionaries have found the best way to present biblical truth is through chronological storytelling.

“It has nothing to do with intelligence. It’s just that their minds are geared differently, and they are oral-preference learners,” Parks explained.

The chronicling approach allows people from storytelling cultures to grasp the essence of biblical teaching in ways that create disciples with transformed lives, he added.

“It’s obedience-based—not knowing everything Jesus commanded but doing everything Jesus commanded,” he said.

The Fulani of Nigeria, West Africa, are primarily nomadic cattlemen who consider themselves to be the “keepers of the torch of Islam.” (IMB photo)

Jesus Christ set the example for effectively communicating the good news to unreached people, Parks said, quoting Eugene Peterson’s The Message paraphrase of John 1:14—“The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.”

“It involves moving into the neighborhood and in culturally relevant ways living out and speaking out the gospel,” he said.

Emphasis on cultural relevancy and communicating the gospel through both words and actions are woven throughout the Ethne initiative—an international movement focused on making disciples among the world’s least-reached people.

Parks serves as co-facilitator for the ongoing Ethne initiative. He and his wife, Erika, along with Stan Parks of WorldconneX, the missions network launched by the Baptist General Convention of Texas, were among the planners for the Ethne ’06 conference in Southeast Asia earlier this year, but three-fourths of the leaders of the global network—and about 90 percent of the participants—are non-Western.

“One of the strengths of Ethne is that it is built on what has gone before,” he said.

Specifically, it grew out of the AD 2000 & Beyond Movement, the Great Commission Roundtable and Singapore ’02. But it also is closely linked to the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization and the World Evangelical Alliance Missions Commission.

“We’re not just doing our own thing,” Parks said.

Several strategy groups developed from the spring Ethne conference, including a frontier crisis response network that links groups in disaster relief with the goal of enabling long-term teams to live among unreached people.

A strategy group focused on prayer initiatives offers Texas Baptists an opportunity for personal involvement, Parks noted. Ethne is developing prayer resources about unreached people groups that will be available online at www.ethne.net. Online pray-er requests are available in at least four languages. A prayer resource DVD produced by Ethne has six audio language tracks and subtitles in 17 languages.

A Bambara mother beams with pride as she lifts her child into her arms. About 4 million Bambara live in Mali, West Africa. More than 85 percent follow Islam. (IMB photo)

WorldconneX has online links to a variety of resources that can help churches connect with groups focused on unreached people groups. Visit www.worldconnex.org.

The International Mission Board also has developed PeopleLink, an initiative to connect churches to un-reached people groups in a variety of ways, including intercessory prayer. For details, visit www.imb.org/WE/pplink.asp.

A key way churches can become involved in meaningful, strategic ministry among unreached people groups involves prayer and vision trips. These trips allow participants the opportunity to “pray on-site with understanding” and build lasting relationships.

Some people groups respond negatively to short-term “drive-by” missions volunteers who enter an unfamiliar culture, work on a project and then move on, Parks said.

On the other hand, he pointed to the example of a man who said he might be willing to listen to what a volunteer told him because the Christian took time to “sit and drink tea with us.”

Relationship-building involves not only investing time with unreached people, but also working with Christians from other cultures who already are bridging gaps and developing strategies to bring about long-term transformation among the least-evangelized people.

“Find ways to do something strategic—to be part of a bigger plan,” Parks urged.

“It’s a growing movement, and I don’t want Texas Baptists to be left behind.”

Looking at the international scope of Ethne and what he sees as the movement of God among non-Western Christians, Parks expressed optimism about 21st century missions.

“God is putting humanity back together and breaking the Babel curse,” he said. “God is continuing a process that started at Pentecost, weaving us back together.”

Posted: 12/01/06

Glad Tidings:
What's your mission?

More than 4,000 people traveled on a Buckner mission trip in 2006, helping to share the gospel and show love to hundreds of orphan children and broken families in the Rio Grande Valley, Seattle and seven countries around the world.

“Your faith gets stretched in a way that we don’t allow it to stretch when we’re at home,” said Longview Baptist Church member Charles Risinger, a three-time Buckner mission trip participant to Latvia. “You see how God makes things happen when you realize that it’s just not humanly possible for you to have done it yourself.”

Thousands of people find their calling in missions each year when they seek to comfort God’s children through Buckner mission trips.

For more information on upcoming missions opportunities with Buckner, contact the Buckner missions office at 1-877-7ORPHAN or email missions@buckner.org.

2007 Buckner Missions Calendar

Kenya

March 7-17 Orphan/Construction/Medical

West Texas (KE07-0008)

May 31-June 30 Orphan Ministry

Interns (KE07-0001)

July 5-August 4 Orphan Ministry

Interns (KE07-0001)

July 25-August 4 Orphan Ministry/SOS

Individuals (KE07-0006)

China

Oct 4-14 Shoes for Orphan Souls

Individuals Needed (CH07-0002)

Romania

May 31-June 30 Orphan Ministry

Interns (RO07-0001)

July 5-August 4 Orphan Ministry

Interns (RO07-0001)

Oct 18-28 SOS/WDLM

Individuals Needed (RO07-0002)

Peru

March 17-25 Shoes for Orphan Souls/WJIE

Individuals Needed (PE07-0002)

July 5-August 4 Orphan Ministry

Interns (PE07-0001)

Dec 8-16 Orphan Ministry/Christmas

Individuals Needed (PE07-0007)

Latvia

May 31-June 30 Orphan Ministry

Interns (LA07-0001)

July 5-August 4 Orphan Ministry

Interns (LA07-0001)

November 1-11 Shoes for Orphan Souls

Individuals Needed (LA07-0002)

Rio Grande Valley

March 11-16 KidsHeart/CBF Churches

July 14-20 KidsHeart/CBF Churches

Guatemala

March 10-17 Shoes for Orphan Souls (SOS)

FamilyLife (GU07-0024)

May 31-June 30 Orphan Ministry Interns (GU07-0001)

July 5-August 4 Orphan Ministry

Interns (GU07-0001) July 7-14 Orphan Ministry Individuals Needed (GU07-0009)

July 17-22 Mother-Daughter ministry trip

Individuals Needed (GU07-0011)

Russia

May 31-June 30 Orphan Ministry Interns (RU07-0001)

July 5-August 4 Orphan Ministry Interns (RU07-0001)

October 11-21 Shoes for Orphan Souls Individuals Needed (RU07-0002)

Posted: 12/01/06

Glad Tidings:
BGCT offers multiple missions opportunities

By Barbara Bedrick

Texas Baptist Communications

DALLAS—As sparkling lights and Nativity scenes take center stage this season, a group of college students at First Baptist Church in Canyon hopes to bring light to nonbelievers a world away in Southeast Asia.

A youth musical mission team plans to travel to Japan where members will bear witness to their faith through caroling. Meanwhile, another group of college students will ring in the new year sharing the gospel in Russia.

“First Baptist Canyon is one of many Christmas mission teams we helped coordinate this year,” said Brenda Sanders, Director of Go Now Missions, a collegiate missions sending arm of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

Go Now Missions exists to help both campus and church groups mobilize today’s college students for service. Many of these college groups plan spring break or summer missions trips.

“We work one-on-one with churches to set up a mission trip that fits their specific interest or mission area,” Sanders said.

Congregations participating this past year include First Baptist churches in Arlington, Lubbock, Belton and Canyon. More than 400 student missionaries were sent out to evangelize nationwide and around the world in 2006.

For more information, visit www.gonowmissions.com, e-mail gonowmissions@bgct.org or contact Brenda Sanders at (817) 277-4077 or (888) 288-1853.

Collegiate projects are only one of many ways Texas Baptist churches can participate in missions through the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

“No matter where God is leading you, we are here to resource and help you in any way, any shape,” said Steve Seaberry, director of Texas Partnerships.

Key international partner locations are Nigeria, Ukraine and two South American countries. Within the United States, Texas Baptists have a partnership with Baptists in New England. Other locations include China, Spain, Portugal, Germany, South Africa, Australia, Hong Kong, Estonia, Republic of Georgia, Brazil, Eastern Cuba and Jordan.

Partnership resources include orientation manuals, team orientation sessions that include training and spiritual preparation, interactive cross-cultural workshops to help church members adapt to a new culture and supplemental travel insurance.

The Partnerships staff will work with a church through every step of mission trip planning, including promotional materials, workshops and partnership speakers. Churches searching for a mission project outside of Texas can review a listing of potential projects by geographical region (PDF) or by project type (PDF) at www.bgct.org. Select “Missions & Ministry” and “missions opportunities” from the menu. For more information, e-mail partnerships@bgct.org or call (214) 828-5180.

Christians who travel internationally—for business or pleasure—can find out more about how to combine their travels with missions service as Texas Envoys. For details, e-mail partnerships@bgct.org or call (214) 828-5182.

The current Border/Mexico Missions emphasis is the BGCT partnership with the Mexico Baptist National Convention, which is opening doors for Baptist churches to adopt an unreached indigenous people group in the Mexico interior.

Ten mission fields have been identified where national missionaries are trying to reach 14 indigenous Indian groups. There are at least 56 different indigenous Indian groups in the Mexico interior that still speak their native dialects. Once a church decides which group or field it wants to adopt, the Border/Mexico (River Ministry) Missions office can provide cultural materials and spiritual guides for that specific people group including:

–training and orientation for mission groups, leadership equipping conferences for border leaders and churches

–speakers for churches to promote border / Mexico missions

Group leaders also can attend training conferences in January and February and schedule a personal consultation with border missionaries to get a project assignment. For more information, contact Dexton Shores at (210) 293-0485 or (888) 333-2363.

Woman’s Missionary Union of Texas offers missions opportunities including Baptist Nursing Fellowship, international initiatives, Missionary Parents Fellowship, missions camping, Project HELP: Poverty, Pure Water/Pure Love, restorative justice ministries, student missions and WorldCrafts. For more information, visit www.wmutx.org or call (214) 828-5150 or (888) 968-6389.

Texas Baptist Men offers a variety of mission opportunities including disaster relief and agricultural and building projects for men and women. Visit www.baptistmen.org or call (214) 828-5350 for details.

Other missions opportunities include:

–Key Church Missions Mobilization. For information, e-mail missional@bgct.org or call (214) 828-5384.

–LifeCall Missions. For details, e-mail cecildeadman@bgct.org or call (214) 828-5293.

–International Learning Adventures. For information, e-mail missional@bgct.org or call (214) 828-5370.

Posted: 12/01/06

Houston Baptist University inaugurates president

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

HOUSTON—Houston Baptist University installed Robert Sloan as the school’s third president Nov. 29, and the newly inaugurated president used the occasion to underscore his commitment to the integration of faith and learning—a recurring theme during his tenure as president of Baylor University.

Sloan told the diverse assembly—including the executive directors of the rival Baptist General Convention of Texas and Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, as well as representatives from about 100 universities—his last two or three years at Baylor had been “difficult and challenging.”

“I honestly never thought I would be a college president again,” he acknowledged.

But after he and his wife, Sue, spent considerable time in prayer and reflection, Sloan said he became convinced God had called him to Christian higher education.

Two factors made Houston Baptist University particularly attractive—its strong Christian commitment and its urban setting, he noted.

“Houston Baptist University has sought to be faithful to its confessional self-identity and to embrace it in an urban setting,” he said.

Commitment to the sovereignty of Jesus Christ means a Christian worldview should permeate every academic discipline, he asserted.

“There is no sphere of reality—no corner of the universe—outside the lordship of Jesus Christ,” Sloan said. “Therefore, we need fear no inquiry. We are to be fully engaged in the life of the mind.”

Few evangelical Christian universities exist in urban settings, and its strategic location gives HBU a special mission, he added.

“Our calling is in an urban setting, and we are to bear witness in the great city,” Sloan said. “Our witness must be borne in a city where the peoples of the earth come together—a center of culture and commerce.”

In the keynote address earlier in the inaugural ceremony, Ed Young, pastor of Second Baptist Church in Houston, likewise had stressed the importance of a distinctively Christian university in a culture dominated by secular “barbarians.”

“Barbarians are individuals who live by power for pleasure without principle,” Young said.

Duane Brooks, pastor of Tallowood Baptist Church in Houston, presented the spiritual charge to the new university president, encouraging Sloan to emulate “the ancient image of the shepherd (rather) than the modern image of the CEO.”

Brooks urged Sloan to lead in a loving way—love for God and for the people whom he will lead. Based on what he already had observed and knew about his former teacher, Brooks said Sloan was “immanently qualified” to carry out that charge.