WHITESBORO—After 20 years with Texans on Mission’s state mass feeding unit, Ray Gann, 71, has retired as the unit’s leader.

Gann tried again this year to deploy as the unit’s leader—or “blue cap” as on-site leaders are known, setting them apart from the “yellow cap” volunteer workers—but realized he no longer could spare the time away from home.

Gary Finley is the current Blue Cap for the unit, and he said Gann “was around when this unit was transitioning from pots and burners to tilt skillets to become the efficient unit we have today.”

Gann, a member of First Baptist Church in Whitesboro, didn’t want to do mass feeding when state disaster relief leaders first assigned him to the team in 2005.

He recently had returned from working in Mexico after Hurricane Emily and made close friends on that first deployment.

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in August 2005, “I thought I was going to go … with the same group of people that we went into Mexico with,” Gann said.

Leaders of Texans on Mission—then known as Texas Baptist Men—“looked at me, saw a young guy that was healthy and said, ‘No, you’re going with these guys over here, the state feeding unit.’”

Four hurricanes in one year

In Gann’s first year as a yellow cap volunteer, he served after four hurricanes—Emily, Katrina, Rita and Wilma.

Eventually, he became a “line chief,” directing the work of a specific component of the unit. Next, he advanced to “chief cook,” overseeing the entire cooking process. About 13 years ago, Gann became the unit’s blue cap.

Gann made his mark early.

“Many of the recipes that are used throughout the nation were developed and perfected by Ray Gann,” Finley said.

Mass feeding is unlike home or restaurant cooking. The Texans on Mission state unit can prepare, cook and package 10,000 meals for lunch and 10,000 more for dinner. That volume involves ordering the needed food in the correct quantity.

It’s done not only with the full quantity in mind, but with the cooking machines and transporting containers in mind, as well.

Do the math

In short, it takes math. And Gann did the math that produced the recipes for mass feeding.

The food cooked by the mass feeding unit is transported to disaster victims and volunteers in insulated containers—Cambros—that keep the food warm and sealed.

Gann used pitchers of water to determine that each Cambro held nine gallons. “And then I began to write recipes about how to fill up a Cambro,” he said.

The math work continues in determining how much food to order and how many Cambros will be needed to deliver the needed meals. The math is important, because the process involves lots of food that costs lots of money.

“Twenty thousand meals a day at $3.25 per meal is $65,000 a day,” Gann said.

But mass feeding is more than math.

It takes “35 to 40 really hardy people working to run the whole thing,” Gann said. And working with the yellow caps became the center of Gann’s role as blue cap.

“The worst kind of blue cap in the world is a blue cap who is so involved in the process he doesn’t pay any attention to his people,” Gann said. “He’s worried about production, those numbers, what reports look like.”

‘Being a servant leader’

But as a leader grows spiritually, he looks to the “bigger picture” and sees “God’s involved in people.”

“I started out doing disasters thinking I was going to save the world, you know. I’m going to go cook for all these people,” Gann said.

“But the bigger picture is that God’s working on changing us, and as a blue cap I learned what being a servant leader is because that’s what a blue cap is.

“What we do is make sure that the yellow caps are successful. One of the things that I learned was my ministry was not the meals that I was cooking and sending out. It was the people I was working with. My ministry was my volunteers.”

You can hear Gann’s commitment to yellow caps in the words of his successor as blue cap for the state feeding unit.

“Ray took me under his wing in 2013 because he knew that, as with all of us, this day [retirement] would someday come,” Finley said. “He always tried to help newcomers understand the art of mass feeding.

“He knew that ministry should never be dependent upon one person, so he took every opportunity to share his knowledge with others.

“His encouragement and innovation will be sorely missed.”

Learned to be led by the Holy Spirit

Gann said he understood early that God had called him to serve his kingdom through Texans on Mission.

“By the school of hard knocks, I learned that I had to be led by the Spirit and not by my flesh, that this lifetime is the only time we get to operate in faith. And to the degree we learn to trust God and walk by faith in him has eternal consequences,” he said.

His “life verse” is Hebrews 11:6. It says: “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (NIV).

It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking, “We are all going to go out and cook all this food, and God is going to be pleased with us,” Gann said.

“But you can’t do it in your own strength and energy. You have to operate in faith, and faith in this case is not my faith for salvation. This is the faith to get through the day, faith to trust that he’s going to fix the problem that’s insurmountable.”

In retiring as blue cap, Gann thinks about the future.

“The word of God teaches that one day we will come to face Jesus Christ to be judged for rewards based on what we did by faith in him,” he said. “I believe that at that moment of receiving our reward from Jesus Christ, I will realize, to my regret, that I could have done more for his glory.

“This is what has motivated me over recent years and still does. Now that circumstances of life have caused me to retire from active deployment, … the question of ‘what more’ is God calling me into is on my mind now, and I know that he has more for me.

“This is the challenge that God the Father lays down before all of us. What has he called you to be involved in, and will you answer his call to do more in Christ Jesus, for his glory, because it matters more than we realize here on this side of eternity.”

Shawn Buser to First Baptist Church in Victoria as senior pastor, from First Baptist Church in Anahuac.

Nick Foster to First Baptist Church of Bonham as music minister.

Jonathan Martin to First Baptist Church in Hereford as youth pastor from First Baptist Church in Childress, where he was the student and worship pastor.

Ashley Weir Myers to First Baptist Church in Burleson as kids’ minister, effective Aug. 10. She will oversee the church’s birth through preteen ministries and staff.

Hunter Wheatcraft to First Baptist Church in Athens as senior pastor from The Branch Church, where he was the Farmers Branch campus pastor.

LEAKEY—Kids from Trinity Baptist Church in Kerrville received a much-needed time of fun and rest following last month’s devastating floods in their area.

Leaders took a group of third through fifth graders to Alto Frio Baptist Encampment in Leakey on July 21-24—helping these young campers to start taking the first steps towards hope and healing in the aftermath of devastation.

“It was definitely a camp after a crisis, but our church really pulled together to rally around us in prayer,” said children’s minister Kellee Parish.

“The church made prayer cards for the campers, and the counselors received so many encouraging texts throughout the week. Prayer is so vital, and it’s how we are able to keep moving during this time.”

In response to the tragedy at nearby Camp Mystic, organizers of Alto Frio Camp immediately began taking extra precautions to ensure the safety and peace of mind of campers and their families.

Leaders at Alto Frio had already postponed the July 14 start of a youth camp with 500 students to ensure road conditions would allow churches enough time to arrive safely. To help streamline communication, camp organizers also began posting updates on their social media pages to include the condition of the Frio River along with the camp’s emergency response plans.

Opportunity for kids to ‘experience normalcy’

Trinity Baptist Pastor John Wheat said he was confident in the policies and procedures Alto Frio had provided.

“Even during a time of tragedy, there is still a great opportunity to help kids grow in their faith at camp,” Wheat said. “I visited the kids at Alto Frio, and I got to see kids having a blast during worship and trusting the camp experience.

“It was a great opportunity for the kids to learn about trusting God and their leaders. It was exciting as a pastor to see that kids were experiencing normalcy, though there was a tragedy in our community, and that families were able to take a leap of faith and trust the camp experience.”

Parish noted their group only had a couple of visitors who chose not to send their children to camp, but she acknowledged a few other churches dropped out for various reasons.

“Before camp, we had a parent meeting, but surprisingly we didn’t receive a lot of questions from parents,” she said. “Most parents understood that Alto Frio was located on a different river, and we would be taking extra precautions to safeguard the children we were being entrusted with at camp.

‘Good to see kids just being kids’

The church booked its week at camp before knowing a ministry called Xtreme Obedience, which exhibits the obedience skills of dogs, would be there, Parish said.

“It was good timing to have the dogs at the camp because they were almost like therapy dogs and provided a calming presence for the kids,” she said. “It brought a sense of normalcy to camp and helped the kids to have a chance to get away and get back to some normalcy. It was good to see kids laugh and have fun once again. … It was so good to see kids just being kids.”

Although there was a thunderstorm during camp that made some of the campers a little nervous, Parish said in the Lord’s timing and provision, having Xtreme Obedience and its dogs at the campsite reminded them God was in control even during the storms of life.

“I’m so grateful that parents allowed their kids to go to camp,” Parish said. “As a leader, it can be a daunting task taking kids to camp after a crisis, but it definitely makes you more aware of your surroundings and the kids you have been entrusted with.”

‘Supernatural place of safety, comfort and peace’

Keith Smith, pastor of South Sub Church in Littleton, Colo., was the camp speaker and also saw first-hand how the campers and counselors were benefiting from being at camp.

“I went into the week praying for the kids and leaders since they had experienced so much tragedy and trauma from the flood.” Smith said. “I was also aware of what that some of the kids had experienced because of the trauma from school shooting in Uvalde in May 2022. That’s a lot of trauma for kids so young.

“A personal prayer that I wrote in my own journal was, ‘Would you send your Spirit to descend on the camp? Make it a supernatural place of safety, comfort and peace.’”

The camp theme was “GLOW”—an acronym for grace, love, obedience and worship, taken from Ephesians 5:8.

“Throughout the week I never sensed anything different than any of the other 18 years I had preached at the camp,” Smith said. “It was like God did indeed create a safe place for the kids. One night there was rolling thunder and some lightning throughout the night. The next morning the kids seemed as if nothing had transpired.

“The adult leaders are the heroes. They gave up their physical and emotional energy when they probably had very little left by the end of the week.”

Although their time at Alto Frio helped provide a week of relief for the campers, Parish acknowledged that it is a long road ahead for Kerrville.

“We are in this for the long haul,” she said. “Our community is now out of the media and the limelight, but our community is still dealing with the devasting effects of this tragedy. Many people are dealing with PTSD. … This camp provided an opportunity for kids to just be kids and begin to return to a sense of normalcy, but we definitely covet your prayers.”

BRENTWOOD, Tenn.—As students head back to the classroom, they’re likely to see the impact of local churches in their schools this year, new research reveals.

A Lifeway Research study shows 4 in 5 U.S. Protestant pastors identify at least one way their congregations have engaged with local public schools in the last year.

Only 18 percent of churches say they weren’t involved with area schools. The average congregation is connected with schools in more than two ways.

“Every community has public schools, and the opportunities to serve them vary,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research. “There are opportunities for churches to provide volunteer labor, help needy families or just thank those investing in the next generation.”

About two-thirds of Protestant pastors (65 percent) say their churches provided school supplies for students in the last year.

Around 2 in 5 provided supplies for teachers (41 percent), assisted a school with volunteers for events they conduct (41 percent) or provided tangible appreciation to teachers at a school, such as gifts, food or cards (38 percent).

A quarter (26 percent) assisted the school with volunteers for their tutoring or reading program. Around 1 in 6 (16 percent) conducted a Bible club at a school.

Churches also said they helped a local school in the last year in other ways, including 8 percent who said they donated something to students, like clothing, food or scholarships. One in 10 pastors (10 percent) specified another form of assistance as a way they’ve helped, including allowing the school to use their facilities, providing enrichment events for students in the summer and praying for teachers.

“At a time of year when churches are kicking off many of their own activities, it’s noteworthy that so many churches are making time to donate supplies for students and teachers and committing to serve their local public schools in other ways,” McConnell said.

Demographic differences noted

Different types of churches are more likely to help local schools in different ways. Generally, however, larger congregations with additional people and resources are more likely to engage area schools.

Churches with 250 or more in worship attendance are the most likely to say they have provided school supplies for students (80 percent), provided tangible appreciation gifts for teachers (63 percent), assisted with volunteers for school events (62 percent), provided supplies for teachers (58 percent), assisted with volunteers for tutoring or reading programs (43 percent) and conducted a Bible club at a school (38 percent).

Congregations of fewer than 50 are statistically the least likely to engage their local schools in any of those ways except conducting a Bible club. They are also most likely to say they haven’t helped a school in the last year (25 percent).

“Helping schools requires resources in the form of volunteer hours or donations. Larger churches have been given more resources, and they are applying them to serving their local schools,” McConnell said.

Churches in the South are more likely to be engaged with their local schools. Pastors in this region are the most likely to provide school supplies for students (74 percent), provide supplies for teachers (56 percent) and provide tangible appreciation gifts for teachers (52 percent).

Southern churches are also among the most likely to assist with volunteers for school events (47 percent) and provide volunteers for tutoring and reading programs (31 percent).

African American pastors are the most likely to say they have provided school supplies for students (80 percent) and are among the most likely to assist with tutoring or reading volunteers (41 percent).

Denominational differences observed

Mainline churches are more likely than evangelical congregations to say they have provided school supplies for students (76 percent v. 62 percent) and provided supplies for teachers (47 percent v. 39 percent). Evangelical pastors are more likely to say they have conducted a Bible club in a school (20 percent v. 11 percent).

Denominationally, Methodist pastors are the most likely to say their church provided school supplies for students (81 percent). They are also among the most likely to provide supplies for teachers (59 percent), assist with school event volunteers (52 percent), provide tangible gifts to teachers (47 percent), assist with tutoring and reading volunteers (41 percent) and provide donations for students (10 percent).

Lutherans (14 percent) and Presbyterian/Reformed (11 percent) are also among those more likely to say their church donates items to help students.

Nondenominational pastors are among the most likely to help with volunteers for tutoring and reading programs (30 percent) and conduct a Bible club at a school (28 percent). Pentecostal pastors (45 percent) are among the most likely to say their churches provide tangible teacher appreciation gifts.

“Local government and nonprofits may have opportunities for a church to serve people in their community in tangible ways, but churches are guaranteed to find needs they can help with at their local public school. And it is often easier to ask members to volunteer or donate to help kids than adults,” McConnell said.

The phone survey of 1,003 Protestant pastors was conducted Aug. 8 to Sept. 3, 2024. Responses were weighted by region and church size to reflect the population more accurately. The completed sample is 1,003 surveys, providing 95 percent confidence that the sampling error does not exceed plus or minus 3.3 percent. This margin of error accounts for the effect of weighting. Margins of error are higher in sub-groups.

(RNS)—When Pastor Tanya Lopez talks about the day in June when she had to confront masked agents in her church parking lot, she focuses on the man they detained.

Lopez, pastor of Downey Memorial Christian Church near Los Angeles, said her primary concern was for the person being taken away by the apparent federal immigration agents, although they declined to identify what agency they worked for.

The fact that agents felt comfortable apprehending a man on church property—and were willing, Lopez said, to raise a weapon at her even after she identified herself as a pastor—left her shaken.

“This is domestic terror, in my opinion,” Lopez told Religion News Service. “I don’t feel safe. I still have to show up at church on Sunday. I still have to lead worship.”

It’s a sentiment shared by a growing number of faith leaders and the communities they serve, as President Donald Trump has enacted a massive immigration crackdown over the past few months, resulting in thousands of detentions and deportations across the country.

For many immigrant-heavy congregations, the risk has been amplified by the administration’s decision to rescind a long-standing internal government policy of avoiding immigration raids at “sensitive locations” such as houses of worship.

RNS has identified at least 10 instances of apparent immigration enforcement activity conducted by ICE or other federal agents on or immediately near church grounds since Trump’s inauguration.

Department of Homeland Security officials repeatedly have declined to confirm whether many such incidents—enacted by uniformed men in masks who sometimes do not identify which agency they work for—were government-sanctioned operations.

The episodes are spread across five states and Puerto Rico and, so far, have impacted Christian communities, including Catholic, evangelical, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and mainline Christian churches.

Four lawsuits filed

The episodes have occurred despite four separate lawsuits involving dozens of religious denominations and groups that have been filed against the Trump administration, arguing any enforcement on church grounds violates the right to freely worship and hinders their ability to serve those in need.

Trump administration officials initially denied ICE raids were happening at houses of worship at all. But last week Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin acknowledged to RNS that incidents have occurred, while insisting officers need “secondary supervisor approval before any action can be taken in locations such as a church or a school.”

McLaughlin added: “We expect these to be extremely rare.”

Faith leaders aren’t finding them rare enough. The Catholic Diocese of San Bernardino reported at least two instances in June alone where ICE detained people on parish property. In one instance, agents chased men into the parking lot of St. Adelaide Parish and detained them. In another, a parishioner at Our Lady of Lourdes was apprehended on church property while doing landscaping.

A similar situation unfolded in Washington state in March, when a man reportedly was arrested in a church parking lot while leaving worship with his family.

Agents are sometimes confronted by clergy, but faith leaders say officers often are unmoved by their appeals. Lopez, the Downey Memorial Christian Church pastor who filmed the masked men in a clip that received national media attention, said one agent allegedly told an administrative pastor: “The whole country is our property.”

‘Interferes with our ability to welcome the stranger’

Federal agents have also used religious facilities as a staging ground. In May, ICE agents staged an operation on United Methodist church property in Charlotte during preschool pickup, disrupting families and instilling fear among staff and children, according to a statement from the Western North Carolina Conference.

“ICE enforcement activity on our church property interferes with our ability to welcome the stranger, serve our neighbors, and carry out the ministries that are central to our faith,” the statement read.

“Churches should not be staging grounds for law enforcement. They are sacred spaces where the hurting find healing, the hungry are fed, and families—regardless of immigration status—come seeking peace.”

Two months earlier, immigration officials reportedly attempted to conduct a stakeout on the grounds of a North Carolina Cooperative Baptist Fellowship church that offered English as a Second Language classes to immigrants and refugees.

The officers eventually left, but the incident became a legal flashpoint. The CBF is a plaintiff in one of the lawsuits challenging the Trump administration’s decision to rescind the sensitive locations policy, raising questions as to whether the incident violated a judge’s injunction in their case.

Chilling effect on worshippers

Immigration officials have also conducted raids in close proximity to churches, a trend that faith leaders say can have an equally chilling effect on people in the pews.

In January, ICE agents reportedly approached an evangelical church in Georgia during worship. When people inside locked the doors, an asylum-seeker’s ankle monitor began buzzing. The congregant exited to the parking lot, where he promptly was detained by agents.

Similar scenes played out in June when one man was detained on the sidewalk outside a Catholic church in Downey and, days later, in Newberg, Oregon, when another man was apprehended on the sidewalk just outside St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, sparking backlash from congregants who knew the man and his family.

For some churches, the fear of raids has forced fundamental changes in how they operate. The bishop of San Bernardino has formally lifted the obligation to attend Mass for Catholics concerned about ICE raids, for example, an unusual shift that follows a similar, albeit less formalized move by the Diocese of Nashville.

Rodrigo Cruz, the executive assistant to the United Methodist Church’s North and South Georgia annual conferences, said widespread ICE activity in his state has pushed congregations back to pandemic-era worship strategies—online services or small gatherings—as at-risk families prioritize safety over communal worship.

“We want to gather with people, especially when we are going through some distress as a society, while also acknowledging that the safety and the well-being of our individuals and our families are a priority,” said Cruz, who noted the North Georgia conference is a plaintiff in one of the four lawsuits challenging the policy change.

Bishop Brenda Bos, who leads the Southwest California Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, told RNS church attendance in the region sank in the weeks during which Los Angeles became the epicenter of Trump’s recent immigration crackdown.

Bos, who is also a plaintiff in the most recent lawsuit, said the drop-off impacts more than just the numbers in the pews. Community ministries also are suffering, she said, in part because immigrants make up a significant percentage of church volunteers in the region.

“It’s not just ‘Oh, I’m a hungry person who doesn’t dare leave my home,’” Bos said. “Some of these people also drive the trucks to go get food, or cook the meals or care for the children. So ministries are stopped also.”

Skipping worship to avoid detention

In Puerto Rico, Pastor Nilka Marrero has watched several families at Iglesia Metodista in San Pablo skip worship out of fear of being detained while en route.

In response, the congregation has worked to arrange transportation to help people feel safe. When agents appear near her church, she barricades worshippers inside.

“When they are that close, we shut the church and we lock the (door), enclose ourselves inside, and we can be very happy for two, three, four, five, six hours until I know that they’re not there,” the Methodist pastor said.

Rebecca González-Ramos, the special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in San Juan, has said she doesn’t intend to raid churches, but Marrero said many in her congregation don’t trust authorities.

“They’ve arrested people in front of the church,” Marrero said, noting hundreds of people have been detained in her part of Puerto Rico over the past few months.

The fear permeating her community, the pastor argued, is well-founded: One of the first major immigration raids in Puerto Rico under the new Trump administration happened on a Sunday morning, when many are on their way to worship.

“I’m sorry. I’m old school. Sunday, for me, is the day of the Lord, and it was very, very disrespectful,” Marrero said. “People from my church and other churches saw that as a transgression of what we had been taught all our life—that Sunday is a day when you go out to adore the Lord.”

Aleja Hertzler-McCain contributed to this report.

Texans on Mission will host a disaster relief training at First Baptist Church in Amarillo on Saturday, Oct. 25. Training sessions will include shower and laundry, mass feeding, fire and flood recovery, using chainsaws and other areas of need. Check-in will take place at 8:15 a.m. Plans for a second round of training for spring 2026 are tentative.

Howard Payne University held Jumpstart, a new summer bridge program designed to introduce students to college and the resources available to them before starting their first semester. Jumpstart was created as part of the Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions grant from the U.S. Department of Education. During the week, students heard from current students, faculty members and staff from the offices of career services, financial aid, business and registrar. Students enjoyed time at Riverside Park where they kayaked and played games and at HPU’s Outdoor Recreation Complex where they played pickleball and climbed the rock wall. All the participants are incoming students at HPU this  fall.

Crusader students move into their residence halls at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor on Aug. 6, for the start of this year’s Welcome Week. Students will settle into their rooms, participate in many traditions and build lasting friendships as they join the UMHB family. The week is designed to ensure students feel at home before beginning class Aug. 11. Events for the week include opportunities to explore student organizations, connecting with local churches, serving Belton schoolchildren in a service project and experiencing a ceremony where they are dubbed “Crusaders Forever.”

Wayland Baptist University is expanding its academic offerings with new degrees and certifications for the 2025-26 academic year. The new degrees and specializations are included in the following programs: the School of Behavioral and Social Sciences, the School of Business, the School of Christian Studies, The Don A. Williams School of Education, the School of Humanities and Leadership, The Kenneth L. Mattox School of Mathematics and The Sciences, and Ben and Berth Mieth School of Nursing. Plainview Classical Academy also is expanding grades 9 through 12 to WBU’s campus.

Buckner Retirement Services named Bonnie Loglisci as the new executive director of The Stayton at Museum Way by Buckner, effective Aug. 1. As executive director of the senior living community, Loglisci will oversee community operations, regulatory compliance and resident and associate relations. Loglisci is certified as a dementia practitioner, trainer and manager by the National Council of Certified Dementia Practitioners and holds a degree from Charron Williams Business College in Miami. Last year, Buckner Retirement Services acquired The Stayton at Museum Way, a Fort Worth senior living community. The Stayton is the seventh senior living community owned and operated by Buckner Retirement Services in Texas, including Ventana by Buckner in Dallas.

The Buckner Family Hope Center at West Dallas brought summer fun to the youth in their community. Program participants ages 7 through 12 enjoyed daily arts and crafts, scavenger hunts, laser tag, field games and more. Led by Xiomayra Guevara, children and youth coordinator, Buckner staff and volunteers focused on biblical principles like respect, healthy esteem, teamwork, positive relationships, communication, problem solving, and health and wellness.

Texas Baptists churches in the Hill Country continue mobilizing members to aid in relief and recovery efforts after the flooding of the Guadalupe River.

Using their mission center as a headquarters for their response efforts, First Baptist Church in Marble Falls has led in flood recovery for Burnet and Llano counties, mobilizing a network of local pastoral teams to act as chaplains as volunteers serve families and offer counseling services.

‘Deeply invested in the community’

Tucker Edwards, family discipleship pastor at First Baptist in Marble Falls, said each morning, volunteers come to the mission center to receive training for the mud-out process, as well as emotional and spiritual training to offer support while serving families.

Five days after the flood, the church hosted a community-wide night of prayer and worship with more than 300 in attendance.

“We had a lot of our congregation and people that I’d never seen before fill up a lot of our worship space and our staff put together a full hour of prayer and worship,” Edwards said.

“We set up our entire counseling team to be [in the] back [of the worship center] and there were people that were counseled throughout [the evening].”

“We’re deeply invested in the community, and the community is deeply invested in us, and so our heart is to always respond not only with the immediate needs, … but we realize that the greatest need, even beyond that, is the ministry of presence and to be with the people and to show them the love of God in the midst of the tragedy and heartache that they’re going through,” Edwards said.

‘Readily available to just love on people’

Alamo Heights Baptist Church in San Antonio opened its building on the mornings of July 7 and 8 to provide counseling for the community. Alamo Heights and Northside Independent School District counselors provided services, as well as the Alamo Heights Fire and Police Critical Incident Stress Management team.

“It’s a team effort, knowing that this would just be kind of an immediate response, but it would also provide an opportunity to build relationships,” said Bobby Contreras, pastor of Alamo Heights.

Contreras said providing counseling was “the best way that we knew how to respond immediately” as he started receiving text messages from community members who were affected by the flooding of the Guadalupe River.

“We knew we weren’t going to be a part of the immediate search efforts, but our goal has always been to, whether it’s on campus or within our home here in the Alamo Heights community, that we just want to be readily available to just love on people … [and in this case] to be in communication and connecting with people that we knew who were in that area, affected,” Contreras said.

Helping with search and rescue efforts

First Baptist Church in Boerne responded by mobilizing members to aid in search and rescue efforts in Center Point with the volunteer fire department, setting up a volunteer portal.

“We started telling people how we could help. We mobilized about 250 people Sunday to go out to the river banks and aid in the search and recovery efforts,” said Chad Mason, missions and evangelism pastor at First Baptist in Boerne.

“At the end of [the day], they said that they had received an overwhelming number of volunteers … somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000.”

Even after military resources became available and local authorities “asked for no more volunteers,” Mason said, the calls still poured in from other churches and organizations from around the country wanting to volunteer.

“So, we’ve been working really hard to try to build a coalition of churches here in Kendall County that are responding,” he said.

“A lot of the conversations right now are [surrounding] training and developing the right people so that as volunteer opportunities emerge in the coming weeks, we’ll be prepared to meet and to work in the long-term recovery effort.”

‘Opportunity to give grace to others’

First Baptist Church in Center Point partnered with the volunteer fire department by volunteering with the volunteer fire department’s donation center.

Pastor Mike Watson said he and his church members helped unload, organize and distribute donated supplies to families in need. Supplies include toiletries, canned goods, gasoline, tools and even “unusual donations” such as ropes requested by the fire department, he said.

As his church stepped up to volunteer in relief efforts, Watson said his eyes were opened to how compassionate his congregation really is.

“We’re a small church, but I found out through this [that] we’re a compassionate church, and I think sometimes hard things happen so that we know just how compassionate we are,” Watson said. “It’s an opportunity to give grace to others … [and it] speaks [to] people who will go out of their way to help total strangers.”

Open doors to share the gospel

Matt Travis, pastor of Comfort Baptist Church in Comfort, said, “God is using [our church] in a support role.”

While helping coordinate incoming support for relief efforts, the church hosted “a church from San Antonio that set up in our parking lot to just provide barbecue” for the community, Travis said. The church also hosted a food truck “from another state in order to serve breakfast each day.”

Comfort Baptist supported people financially by providing Visa gift cards to those who don’t want to disclose specific needs. The church also raised funds to provide scholarships for people needing equipment rental for area cleanup.

Those ministries “open[ed] the door for us to be able to share the gospel with people,” Travis said.

“Baptists all over have been very faithful. Our phone has been ringing off the hook with people saying: ‘We want to help. How can we help? What is the best way for us to help?’” Travis said. “So, we are very thankful for Texas Baptists, and Baptists from all over the U.S., who have stepped in to help.”

Texas Baptists Counseling Services Director Olga Harris said she is “looking for ways to lock arms with our local churches to provide grief support” for those affected.

Harris’ department offers counseling resources for Texas Baptists ministers and their families. Services include no-cost consultations and referrals, and financial assistance based on certain criteria is available.

To initiate a request, visit txb.org/counseling or contact Olga Harris at counselingservices@texasbaptists.org.

Donald D. Schmeltekopf of Waco, provost emeritus at Baylor University, died July 30. He was 85. He was born Aug. 18, 1939, in Kyle to Emil and Ruth Schmeltekopf. He was a member of the NAIA national championship basketball team in 1960 at Southwest Texas State University (now Texas State University). He earned his undergraduate degree from Baylor University in 1962, followed by a Master of Divinity degree from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from Drew University. He also pursued postdoctoral studies at Princeton University. Throughout his career, he served in various roles in higher education and as a program officer for the National Endowment for the Humanities. He was vice president and dean at Mars Hill College in North Carolina before joining Baylor University in 1990. There, he served as vice provost and then provost until 2003. He was the director of the Center for Ministry Effectiveness from 2006 until 2014. He also was instrumental in affiliating Baylor as a member of The Lilly Network of Church-Related Colleges and Universities (formerly the Lilly Fellows Program) at Christ College, Valparaiso University. He was named provost emeritus upon his retirement in 2015. He was instrumental in shaping Baylor’s academic landscape, including the founding of Truett Theological Seminary, the Institute for Faith and Learning, the School of Engineering and Computer Science, and the Honors College, including the addition of the Great Texts Program. He was honored with the Charles D. Johnson Outstanding Educator Award in 2016 for his contributions to Christian higher education. He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Judy; their four children, William, Elizabeth, Andrew and Stephen; six grandchildren; and his older brother, Robert of San Angelo. In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial gifts to the Endowed Donald and Judy Schmeltekopf Ethics & Culture Lecture Series at the Baylor University Honors College or Christ Church Waco.

BROWNSVILLE—Woman’s Missionary Union of Texas, in partnership with Send Relief, a collaboration between the International Mission Board and the North American Mission Board, and Texans on Mission, hosted a weekend-long Serve Brownsville back-to-school block party.

Several families with children received backpacks, school supplies, hygiene kits provided by Texans on Mission, and nearly 900 new pairs of shoes donated by Buckner International.

The goal was to give away 4,000 backpacks and school supply kits including pencils, pens, composition notebooks, binders and folders, according to Texas WMU officials.

Texas WMU and the ministry partners responded to the need in Brownsville, where the poverty rate of 24.9 percent is more than double the national average.

Brownsville Independent School District has an enrollment of more than 37,000 students, and volunteers planned to serve at least 10 percent of students in need.

More than 25 volunteers assisted in handing out backpacks and supplies, sharing mental and physical health resources and ministering to children and families with words of encouragement, bracelets and fun activities.

Serving along the border

Vanessa Lerma and her husband, Osvaldo, serve along the U.S./Mexico border with Send Relief as missionaries. Together, they work in the ministry center in Laredo and spent months coordinating the block party in Brownsville.

With the assistance of Texas WMU, Send Relief, Texans on Mission and partner churches in the area, Lerma and Osvaldo worked to ensure each family was provided backpacks, school supplies, shoes, and a gospel message—that Jesus loves them.

“Being along the border, life, in some families, is transitional,” Vanessa said. “There is … insecurity as it relates to the needs of the family and supplying for them. It is always something of concern for the family in how to supply for their children. Our heart is to meet those needs and see how the Lord impacts their lives and transforms their lives.

“As we are ministering and loving and being the hands and feet of Jesus and doing that through back to school, it is a way to do ministry and be able to reach the community for Christ.”

Her husband added: “I think prayer and the church’s desire to reach out to the community to know that the answer is in the gospel, and we have that treasure.

“The idea is to help those who do not have the necessary school supplies. The statistics show that more than 75 percent of students are economically disadvantaged.”

Teri Ussery, Texas WMU adult/young adult missional lifestyle strategist, said it took teamwork to put together the event.

“Our first connection was to partner with Vanessa, and we kind of started the ball rolling,” Ussery said.

“Osvaldo brought Send Relief and Texans on Mission joined the cause to see what they could do down here. So, we really came together as a team and prayed about what kind of ministry God wanted us to do down here.”

Volunteers also included students from Baylor University’s Louise Herrington School of Nursing.

Nursing the neighborhood

Arabella Hernandez, a nursing student at Baylor set to graduate in 2026, decided to spend a weekend volunteering in her hometown with Texas WMU.

The block party at Primera Iglesia Bautista Mexicana was an opportunity for Hernandez to prepare for her post-graduate dream—to give back to her community.

On Saturday, the team of volunteers met to host another block party for back-to-school at Iglesia Bautista Horeb.

“I’m from the valley, so once I graduate, I’m planning on staying in the valley. And my end goal is … go to med-surg (medical surgery) for a year, and then after that, I’ll try and do hospice,” Hernandez said.

The distance learning program allows Hernandez to stay home and help her community once she graduates. Participating with Texas WMU gave Hernandez a chance to meet parents and children whom she hopes to serve in other ways in the future.

“The reason why I want to stay is to give back to my community. A lot of people leave for school from here and don’t come back. I think it is important to keep people from our area here, because they understand the community best, and they understand the hardships the community faces,” Hernandez said, adding that the community is in great need.

“There are not enough nurses, not enough doctors and a lot of patients. All of the hospitals here are underserved. On top of that, with the recent immigration issues that we are having, there are also a lot of patients who are scared to get care in the first place, because they are afraid it will lead to their deportation.”

Felicity Adjetey, a Baylor nursing student graduating next spring, participated in the back-to-school party to offer support to those affected by current immigration issues.

“Something was calling for me to come and help out and bring good to the community. It has been great. We have volunteered and made donations and helped with community health—just trying to spread good information,” Adjetey said.

Looking up and looking out for those needing Jesus

Ryan Welch, Texans on Mission’s missions and discipleship coordinator, led the morning devotion for the volunteers’ rally. Welch preached from Luke 19 about Jesus meeting Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector and focused on the moment Jesus looked up and insisted Zacchaeus come down and stay at his place.

“Today, we will have opportunities to serve the gospel. But sometimes it takes us pausing and looking up at others,” Welch said. “And notice Zacchaeus was seeking Jesus. Today, there will be people that are seeking Jesus. But we have to stop and look up.”

Months beforehand, Welch met with Texas WMU, Send Relief, and local pastors to coordinate the back-to-school block party.

“We helped provide hygiene kits that will go into the backpacks and they are hygiene kits for kids,” Welch said.

“We also helped with a couple of the block party stations that include our bracelets. We have these gospel bracelets … so children will be able to create some for themselves. We also have our messages of hope where kids can create or draw a picture on packing paper.”

The packing paper is “used after disasters and given to families in need who are packing belongings.”

Welch added disaster relief after the recent Hill Country floods are an example of what Texans on Mission is about, and the partnership with Texas WMU to serve Brownsville is part of their mission.

“When there is a need, and we can respond, we say yes,” Welch said.

Leaders of Fellowship Southwest voiced opposition to the congressional redistricting effort in the special session of the Texas Legislature, calling it a “partisan power grab.”

Gov. Greg Abbott included redistricting in his July 9 call for a special session, citing “constitutional concerns raised by the U.S. Department of Justice.”

In a July 7 letter to Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Harmeet K. Dhillon and Michael E. Gates from the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department stated their office’s position that several Texas congressional districts “constitute unconstitutional gerrymanders.” They insisted Texas needed to rectify “race-based considerations” in Districts 9, 18, 29 and 33.

President Donald Trump told reporters a “simple redrawing” of the congressional map in Texas would allow Republicans to gain five seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Rep. Todd Hunter, R-Corpus Christi, filed HB 4 and its associated map of proposed new congressional districts.

‘Waste of time, taxpayer dollars and political will’

Critics of the plan—including officials with Fellowship Southwest—assert it essentially will deny representation to some predominantly non-Anglo areas of the state.

The proposed redistricting plan “does nothing for the people of Texas,” said Stephen Reeves, executive director of Fellowship Southwest. “It is merely a thinly disguised partisan power grab.

“In service to the powerful in Washington, further gerrymandering our state only compounds the marginalization and weakens the votes of millions of minority Texans.”

In the Fellowship Southwest Aug. 2 email newsletter, Reeves called redistricting at this point “a waste of time, taxpayer dollars, and political will.”

‘Repudiation of … righteousness and justice’

He insisted “faithful people of goodwill” should “forcefully oppose this effort and fight for a democracy where every vote is equally respected, and each community has a fair shot at electing a representative of their choice.”

John Ogletree, a Houston pastor and chair of the Fellowship Southwest board, stated, “The effort to redraw congressional lines targeting Black and Hispanic districts is a repudiation of the founding principles of this country, as well as a repudiation of the standard of righteousness and justice found throughout the word of God.”

Ogletree, founding pastor of First Metropolitan Church in Houston, asserted “the governor and state legislature will face divine retribution” for their actions.

He quoted Isaiah 10:1-2, which pronounces judgment on “those who make unjust laws, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people.”

‘Silencing the voices of people’

Prior to an Aug. 1 public hearing on the redistricting plan, Fellowship Southwest released testimony Anyra Cano, the organization’s director of programs and outreach, planned to present.

“These changes are not about justice or fair representation,” Cano stated in her prepared testimony.

“They are about imposing power and control, at the cost of silencing the voices of people who have already been pushed to the margins for far too long—the voices of Texans who work tirelessly every day, pay taxes, contribute to their communities, and trust you to represent them in decisions that affect their lives.”

Cano, an equipping pastor at Iglesia Bautista Victoria en Cristo in Fort Worth, insisted the proposed changes would “disenfranchise our community by replacing their chosen representative with one they did not elect.”

‘Steal their voice, their vote and their dignity’

In her prepared remarks, Cano noted the Texas Legislature in its regular session approved legislation mandating the display of the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom.

“If we are going to display that message, we should take note that those very same commandments tell not to make or worship idols, this includes the idols of politics and power,” she stated.

Cano also pointed to the commandment against stealing, saying, “Redistricting lines that silence communities would steal their voice, their vote and their dignity.”

Congressional district maps should “reflect the people of Texas, not just those in power,” she asserted.

“God calls us to love our neighbors, to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves, and to care for the marginalized, not to silence those with whom we disagree,” she stated.

Fellowship Southwest describes itself as “a faith-based organization that catalyzes and amplifies the work of Christians as they practice compassion and pursue justice.” Several Baptist churches in Texas, Oklahoma, and Arizona are listed on its website as supporting churches.

Texas Baptist Missions Foundation officials announced they met the fundraising requirements of a $1.3 million Mabee Foundation Challenge Grant toward construction of a new Baptist Student Ministry building at Baylor University.

“This milestone could not have been reached without faithful partners in the gospel,” said Eric Wyatt, vice president of the Texas Baptist Missions Foundation.

When the Mabee Foundation awarded the challenge grant in July 2024, it required that an additional $2.447 million—the remainder of the capital campaign—be given or pledged within the next 12 months.

The funds were raised and validated “over a week ahead of the deadline,” said Jerry Carlisle, president of the Texas Baptist Missions foundation.

Once construction begins on the new BSM building, the funds will be distributed to the mission foundation, officials said.

“God continually made it clear to our team that he was working in the hearts of his people to provide for his purposes. We are grateful,” Carlisle said.

While the $7 million campaign to build the new BSM building has been completed, the missions foundation will continue raising funds for an endowment to support the Baylor BSM, Wyatt said.

“As we move forward toward the beginning of construction this fall, the Mabee Foundation grant deadline isn’t the end—a very important milestone, but not the finish line. We continue our efforts to raise $2 million for an endowment to support this new building and ministry,” he said.

Headquartered in Midland, the J.E. and L.E. Mabee Foundation has helped fund new construction and building renovations for nonprofit organizations since 1948. It funds projects in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arkansas, Missouri and Kansas.

(RNS)—A conservative Christian legal group asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a decade-old case involving a former Kentucky county clerk who cited her faith when she refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Activists hope the a long-shot effort will result in justices ending nationwide legalization of same-sex marriage.

Liberty Counsel, a legal nonprofit that also describes itself as a Christian ministry, has long been involved in the case of Kim Davis. In 2015, the Kentucky clerk gained international attention after she wouldn’t issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples despite the Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court decision, which legalized same-sex marriage nationwide that same year.

Davis’ refusal—which she said was rooted in her evangelical Christian faith—led to a series of legal battles she lost, resulting in a brief prison sentence as well as being ordered to pay $100,000 in damages as well as additional legal fees.

Liberty Counsel filed a petition with the court on July 24, requesting an appeal to Davis’ case and asking the court to overturn Obergefell.

“If ever a case deserved review, the first individual who was thrown in jail post-Obergefell for seeking accommodation for her religious beliefs should be it,” reads the petition.

Justices express frustration with decision

Legal analysts have cast doubt on the likelihood of the court reviewing Davis’ case, noting justices already declined to take up an earlier version of her case in 2020.

But in an interview with Religion News Service last month, Liberty Counsel founder Mathew Staver said multiple justices have voiced frustration with the Obergefell decision over the years.

When the court passed over Davis’ case in 2020, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a statement joined by Justice Samuel Alito that blasted the same-sex marriage ruling, saying, “Davis may have been one of the first victims of this court’s cavalier treatment of religion in its Obergefell decision.”

“We think that it’s not a matter of if, but just a matter of when, the Supreme Court will overrule Obergefell,” Staver said.

The court has grown more conservative since the 2020 ruling, with Justice Amy Coney Barrett—who has voiced criticism of Obergefell in the past—filling the slot on the bench left open after the death of liberal jurist Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Court already overturned one landmark ruling

Thomas explicitly called for Obergefell to be reconsidered in his concurring opinion for Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the 2022 ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide.

Staver argued the Dobbs decision left Obergefell in a “weak” position, and he noted a case only needs support from four justices to be reviewed.

“With all of these things—the overruling of Roe, the composition of the court the way it is now … I have a good feeling about the possibility that the court would take this case,” he said.

Staver also suggested justices may be more willing to take up the case given the passage of the 2022 Respect for Marriage Act, which, among other things, requires states to recognize same-sex marriages if they were performed in places where it is legal.

The result, Staver argued, would reduce the nationwide impact if the court once again made same-sex marriage a state-level decision.

“It has taken one of the policy reasons for not overruling Obergefell off the table,” he said.

Activists fear rights would be lost

Even so, LGBTQ rights activists have long insisted that, even with the Respect for Marriage Act, rights would be lost if Obergefell were overturned.

Their supporters include a broad swath of religious Americans. A 2024 Public Religion Research Institute report found majorities of white mainline Protestants, white Catholics, Hispanic Catholics, Jews and Buddhists all support keeping same-sex marriage legal, and many denominations now perform same-sex marriages. In the past, clergy even filed suit to help legalize same-sex marriage at the state level.

But Staver said support for his cause is growing—or at least becoming more organized. He pointed to state resolutions passed by lawmakers in Idaho and elsewhere asking the court to reconsider Obergefell.

He also noted a resolution passed by the Southern Baptist Convention in June that called for “the overturning of laws and court rulings, including Obergefell v. Hodges, that defy God’s design for marriage and family.”