Baylor Scott & White Health is another one of our wonderful Texas Baptist institutions we would like to highlight. It will be one of the institutions represented at this year’s Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting in Waco. Please make plans to stop by Baylor Scott & White Health’s booth for more information and meet some of their people.
René MacielThe annual meeting will be held Nov. 13-15 at the Waco Convention Center. This year’s theme is “Celebrating Service,” recognizing the ministries of our Texas Baptist institutions. See you in Waco!
In 1903, George W. Truett, pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, envisioned a hospital to which “persons of all faiths and those of none may come with confidence.” That single hospital blossomed into Baylor Scott & White Health, the largest not-for-profit health care system in Texas.
In 2013, Scott & White Healthcare merged with the Baylor Health Care System to form Baylor Scott & White Health. Truett’s mission is now carried out through 52 hospitals, more than 800 access points, more than 5,800 active physicians, about 35,000 employees and the Scott & White Health Plan. The system touches people—with 5.3 million patient encounters annually.
Chaplains work to meet the spiritual needs of diverse patients, families, visitors and staff and make Truett’s vision a reality. Texas Baptists financially support the Baylor Scott & White office of mission and ministry, which builds direct relationships and fosters partnerships that minister Christ’s healing love to people whose lives have been disrupted by illness, injury and the stresses of life.
The system’s chaplains had nearly a quarter-million encounters last year. The health system’s clinical pastoral education program trains and certifies clergy, seminarians and qualified laypeople worldwide to be effective ministers in international settings. It has trained more than 500 ministers from 18 denominations and 15 nations on five continents.
Baylor Scott & White’s Faith in Action Initiatives mobilize the system personnel and like-minded organizations to address the medical and spiritual needs of communities locally and throughout the world through education, missions, redirection of resources and disaster relief. In fiscal year 2015, it donated more than $430,000 worth of supplies and equipment to nearly two dozen nations for disaster relief and medical missions.
To learn more, visit www.baylorscottandwhite.com.
René Maciel is president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas and community life pastor at First Baptist Church of Woodway in Waco.
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