Baylor University’s Center for Christian Music Studies received a four-year $1.2 million grant from Lilly Endowment as part of its Strengthening Congregational Ministries with Youth Initiative. The initiative’s primary aim is to support projects—such as Baylor’s Building Bridges to the Future program—that help congregations design, test and implement new models for nurturing the religious lives of middle and high school youth and for engaging them more fully in the congregations’ mission and ministries. The grant to Baylor will enrich current programs in the Center for Christian Music Studies related to strengthening youth participation in worship, including the annual Alleluia Conference and Worship Lab. Also, the grant will help fund new programs for youth-focused spiritual formation and vocational discernment. A key component of the grant will be to develop partner congregations in the Houston, Austin-San Marcos and Central Texas areas. Baylor faculty will work alongside these partner congregations to identify young people and work with their mentors.
Philanthropist Babs Baugh and other donors and supporters of Baptist University of the Américas organized a recent event recognizing Teo Cisneros for his service as vice president of development at BUA. During his time in that role, the school raised about $16 million. He stepped down from the vice presidential post at the end of 2018 after 10 years, and he recently was named pastor of the Spanish-language ministry at First Baptist Church of Bryan. Previously, he served on the BUA board of trustees and chaired search committees that called Albert Reyes as president in 1999 and René Maciel as president in 2007. Before he joined the BUA administration, he was pastor of Templo Jerusalem Baptist Church in Victoria for 25 years.
Buckner International named Angelina Rodriguez director of Buckner Family Hope Center of Lubbock, due to open in March. Rodriguez began working for Buckner International in 2015 as a foster care home developer in Lubbock, while her most recent position was foster care home developer supervisor. Rodriguez holds an undergraduate degree in psychology from Argosy University and a master’s degree in human services from Lubbock Christian University. The Buckner Family Hope Center of Lubbock will be the first Family Hope Center in West Texas and the 28th in Texas. Family Hope Center services typically range from a variety of community events that engage families, to parent education classes, job skills training, financial empowerment, family coaching, counseling and spiritual enrichment. A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Buckner Family Hope Center of Lubbock at 1510 S. Loop 289 is scheduled March 7.
Ordinations
First Baptist Church in Belton ordained Kevin Brown, Landon Depue, Brandon Hall, Scott Miller, Franklin Scott, Joni Ylostalo and Dennis Zacha as deacons.
First Baptist Church in Waco ordained Robin Priddy, associate pastor to children and activities, to the gospel ministry.
We seek to connect God’s story and God’s people around the world. To learn more about God’s story, click here.
Send comments and feedback to Eric Black, our editor. For comments to be published, please specify “letter to the editor.” Maximum length for publication is 300 words.