Around the State: Wayland receives grant for KALEO program; Baylor extends Livingstone’s contract

Wayland Baptist University received a $300,000 sustainability grant from the Lilly Endowment’s Youth Theology Network for KALEO, a program designed to foster Christian leadership among high school juniors and seniors. Wayland launched KALEO in 2016 with the help of a $600,000 Lilly Endowment grant. KALEO seeks to transform the lives of high school students through discovery, discernment and affirmation of God’s call for Christian leadership. High school students enter into a yearlong mentorship program with a senior pastor or youth pastor through the program. Students also participate in a summertime immersion experience that focuses on three phases of development—a wilderness discipleship event; classroom instruction in biblical and theological studies on the Wayland campus and ministry projects through area churches; and a missional experience. Summer 2020 participants will engage missional service in Olympia, Wash., through the BGCT’s partnership with the Northwest Baptist Convention. After completing the immersion experience, students return to their churches and mentors for continued study and service.

Baylor University has extended the contract of President Linda Livingstone. She began serving as Baylor’s 15th president on June 1, 2017, under a three-year contract. Her newly amended five-year contract will run through May 31, 2024, with the option for two automatic one-year extensions. The contract extension for Livingstone follows recent announcements of new contract terms for Mack Rhoades as vice president and athletic director and for head football coach Matt Rhule. “These long-term contract extensions reflect the tremendous positive momentum Baylor has experienced over the past two-plus years under our current university leadership,” said Jerry K. Clements, chair of the Baylor board of regents.

East Texas Baptist University welcomed Benjamin and Gloria Kwashi as special guests at a chapel service and related events on campus Oct. 7. He is Anglican archbishop in Nigeria, and she is founder of the Zambiri Outreach and Child Care Centre, a primary and secondary school that provides free education, meals, uniforms and medical care for 400 children. In a chapel sermon, he spoke about the religious persecution his family endured in Nigeria. ETBU President J. Blair Blackburn presented Kwashi with a Great Commission Globe Sculpture by Max Greiner, and Texas State Sen. Bryan Hughes presented the couple with a Texas flag that flew over the state capitol in their honor.

Houston Baptist University has been awarded a $3 million, five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education under the Title V funding program for Developing Hispanic Serving Institutions program. The award is designed to prepare students in science, technology, engineering and math fields by enhancing HBU’s academic and research-based programming in the sciences, engineering and cyber/computer sciences.

Emmanuel McCall, a Baptist pioneer in racial reconciliation, received the Christian Ethics Award from the T.B. Maston Foundation at an Oct. 4 dinner at Dallas Baptist University. McCall was the first African-American to serve on the executive staff of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Home Mission Board, working there from 1968 to 1991. While on the faculty at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, he developed a Black Church Studies curriculum that served as a model for three SBC seminaries. He also was on the faculty of the McAfee School of Theology. McCall is a former vice president of the Baptist World Alliance, past moderator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and pastor emeritus of First Baptist Church in East Point, Ga. Daniel Carro, regional secretary of the Union Bautista Latino Americana and professor at the John Leland Center for Theological Studies, spoke at the awards dinner.

Conclave, a one-stop conference for various family ministries hosted by Texas Baptists’ Great Commission Team, will take place Oct. 14-16 at First Baptist Church in Richardson. The conference is designed to provide encouragement, worship experiences, networking, training and resources for youth ministers, as well as those who oversee the family or NextGen ministries in local churches. Speakers include Reggie Joiner, CEO of Orange; Mark Matlock, president of WisdomWorks Ministries; and David Kinnaman, president of Barna Group. Jimmy McNeal from Austin Stone Community Church will lead worship. Jane Wilson, youth discipleship specialist with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, noted the conference is centered around teaching ministers how to work collaboratively within their church to reach the entire family unit. “This is for the children’s minister who wants to work alongside the youth minister and the preschool minister and the pastor to reach families,” Wilson said. “That’s the difference in this event. It’s all about collaborative ministry among staff members, in addition to the youth ministry training for which Conclave has been known over the years.” For more information about Conclave, including registration prices and information about scholarships and student rates, click here.