Around the State: Baylor president named to OSU Hall of Fame

Linda Livingstone, the 15th president of Baylor University, will be inducted Feb. 7 into the Oklahoma State University Hall of Fame—the highest honor bestowed by OSU. It recognizes alumni and former students with outstanding lifetime achievements in society and professional life. She graduated from OSU in 1982 with a bachelor’s degree in economics and management. She went on to receive a master’s degree in business administration in 1983 and a doctorate in management and organizational behavior in 1992. During her time at OSU, Livingstone was a member of the Cowgirl Basketball team. She was named a Top Ten Senior, President’s Distinguished Scholar and Big 8 Scholar Athlete.

Two current Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board staff members will assume new leadership roles with Texas Baptists’ Missions Team. Mario Gonzalez will be the director of River Ministry/Mexico Missions, and David Miranda will be the director of the Missionary Adoption Program and Urban Missions. Gonzalez has been with Texas Baptists since 2013 and previously served as the director of Multi-Housing/House Congregations. He has served as a pastor in Mexico, New Mexico and Texas and also was a missionary with the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board. In his new role, Gonzalez will work with 16 River Ministries missionaries from Brownsville to Tijuana and promote trips to border cities along the Mexican border. As director of the Missionary Adoption Program, Miranda will help connect Texas churches with a church in a host state or country to jointly sponsor indigenous missionaries, ensuring that the missionaries are receiving proper support and creating more partnerships between Texas churches and these missionaries. Through Urban Missions, he will equip church leaders with missional training, consulting, coaching and commissioning to reach their communities. Miranda formerly worked for Texas Baptists as missions specialist. He is also the pastor of West End Church, a Texas Baptist church plant in Dallas.

Myles Werntz, the T.B. Maston Chair of Christian Ethics and associate professor of ethics and practical theology at Hardin-Simmons University’s Logsdon School of Theology, will present the 13th annual Currie-Strickland Distinguished Lectures in Christian Ethics at Howard Payne University. “War and the Christian Life” is the topic of the lectures, Feb. 6-7 in the Richard and Wanda Jackson Conference Room of HPU’s Paul and Jane Meyer Faith and Life Leadership Center. Werntz will deliver the first lecture, “The Violence of No One: Theological Reflections on American War and Peace” at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 6. He will present the second lecture, “The Peace of Everyone: Christians in a World of War,” at 10 a.m. on Feb. 7. Admission is free to the public, but reservations are requested. E-mail [email protected] or call (325) 649-8403

Mary K. Nelson, director of the Ph.D. in Leadership Studies program in the Gary Cook School of Leadership at Dallas Baptist University, received the Piper Outstanding Professor of the Year Award. The award is presented annually to a DBU professor selected by his or her faculty peers. It marked the second time Nelson received the honor, having previously been named Piper Outstanding Professor in 2010. Nelson started her career at DBU in 2004 as an English professor and then served as chair of the English department from 2013 to 2017. In 2013, she was asked to co-teach a Great Books class for the doctoral leadership program, and a few years later began co-leading an annual study strip to Oxford that focuses on historical British leaders and contemporary issues of global leadership. She was appointed director of the Ph.D. in Leadership Studies program in 2017. She and her husband Alan are the parents of twin 6-year-old sons, Blake and Paul. They are members of First Baptist Church in Arlington.

Working with North Carolina Baptist Men, Texas Baptist Men has helped send 500 water filters to provide clean drinking water for families affected by the recent earthquake in Puerto Rico. Each of the 500 filters provides enough clean water for a family each day. A 6.4 magnitude earthquake on Jan. 7 caused more than $200 million in damage nationwide, and it was followed by at least two significant subsequent earthquakes. Up to 300,000 individuals had no drinking water after the earthquake.

East Texas Baptist University will host the first Preview Days of 2020 on Jan. 27 and Feb.17.  Prospective students interested in attending the university can visit campus and receive a comprehensive overview of life at ETBU through admission and financial aid sessions, academic showcases, campus tours, student life panels and a chapel worship service. Students and their families can interact with current students, faculty, admissions counselors, financial aid staff and academic advisers. For more information or to register, click here.

The Marsh Center for Chaplains Studies, sponsored by the B.H. Carroll Theological Institute, exhibited for the first time at the National Conference on Ministry to the Armed Forces in Washington, D.C., Jan. 13-15. Conference members endorse chaplains for service in the U.S. Armed Forces on behalf of their respective religious organizations. They are the point of contact between the Department of Defense and more than 150 religious denominations and faith groups. Jim Spivey, a retired U.S. Army chaplain and brigadier general, is director of the Marsh Center, founded in 2019.

Ordinations

John Bate, Don Hyden, Brandon Skaggs, Ryun Summers and Scott Whitley as deacons at First Baptist Church in Belton.