Archive for September 2010
IMB's trustees pray for next president, a balanced budget and 51 new missionaries
TAMPA, Fla.?Reminding trustees that over 5,000 missionaries, the entire trustee board, and untold numbers of Southern Baptists are praying for the next president of the International Mission Board, trustee chairman Jimmy Pritchard announced the search committee is still looking for "God's man" to fill the agency's top position.Meeting Sept. 14-15 [...]
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What's the sin in bad habits?
As a fellow struggler, I've approached this issue's writing assignment with caution. I'm too large and inactive, and I sometimes let worry and stress rob me, and those around me, of joy. So how do I write about the subject of this issue's articles without being a hypocritical nag? [...]
Continue Reading'Reach Texas' presents exciting prospects
The "Faces & Places: Reach Texas 2010-2011" missions emphasis has me excited. We have an unprecedented opportunity to present the gospel in our state. Now is the time we must work together to accomplish the Great Commission. Let me mention a couple of ways your church can have a [...]
Continue ReadingReview: 'The Maker's Diet'
I am not a doctor and I don't play one on TV, but then again, neither is Jordan Rubin, author of "The Maker's Diet," one of the top 10 best-selling books in LifeWay Christian Store's health section. Since I am not a physician, I will not claim to make [...]
Continue ReadingMinisters urged to rest
NASHVILLE, Tenn.?Research indicates that members of the clergy now suffer from obesity, hypertension and depression at higher rates than most Americans, according to The New York Times.Just in the past decade, the newspaper said, the clergy's use of antidepressants has risen and their life expectancy has fallen. A simple [...]
Continue ReadingBelievers not immune to mental, emotional ailments
"Psychiatrist? No way. I was not nuts. (Just depressed)," said Liz Traylor in recalling a time in her life when she had done all she knew to do to fight off depression, but was losing ground in her battle.Traylor, a former Texan and wife of Pastor Ted Traylor of [...]
Continue ReadingAlternative medical approaches abounding, confounding
It's a subject matter rife with passion, declarations of healing remedies, accusations of quackery, and, always, questions. How is a person, convicted of his need to take better care of himself, to negotiate the preponderance of information called forth with one simple Google quest for "alternative medicine?"Just typing in [...]
Continue ReadingTexans see health & fitness as spiritual issue
William Rainey was overweight, came from a family with weight problems and enjoyed satisfying his cravings for food.But then a colleague in ministry experienced significant professional and medical setbacks because he had ignored his health for too long. That's when Rainey, executive pastor at Glen Meadows Baptist Church in San [...]
Continue ReadingNominations planned at SBTC meetings
Several nominations have been announced ahead of the SBTC Bible Conference and Annual Meeting, scheduled Nov. 14-16 in Corpus Christi. Bob Pearle, pastor of Birchman Baptist Church in Fort Worth, announced his intention to nominate pastor Luis Canchola of Cornerstone Church in McAllen as SBTC vice president."Seven years ago [...]
Continue ReadingPoor health costly financially, physically, spiritually
Americans have more influence over their personal medical decisions than political debates earlier in the year predicted. Discussion of the national health care legislation, signed into law by President Obama in March, has often focused on the loss of individual freedom in selecting a doctor or health care plan. [...]
Continue ReadingReach Texas Offering nears $1.1 million goal
Economic difficulties in the past year did not deter Texas churches from generously giving to the Reach Texas Offering, the SBTC's annual state missions offering. With final gifts still to be counted, giving looked just shy of the 2009-2010 goal of $1.1 million.With September marking the start of the [...]
Continue ReadingTexas board to book publishers: Present religion fairly
AUSTIN, Texas ? The Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) narrowly passed a resolution on Sept. 24 warning textbook publishers that content "demonizing or lionizing one or more [religions] over others" would be rejected.The resolution addresses what it says were inequities in Texas social studies textbooks purchased in years [...]
Continue ReadingExecutive Committee rejects motions on Baptist Press, messenger seating
NASHVILLE, Tenn.?The Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee, meeting Sept. 20-21 in Nashville, Tenn., rejected two notable motions from last June's annual meeting in Orlando: one that would have made Baptist Press news service a separate entity and another that would have disallowed the seating of messengers from churches perceived as [...]
Continue ReadingKevin Ezell elected new NAMB president
ATLANTA ?Kevin Ezell has been elected president of the North American Mission Board. NAMB's board of trustees approved the nomination in a special called meeting Sept. 14 at an Atlanta-area hotel.Ezell's nomination was announced Aug. 31 after NAMB's seven-member presidential search committee voted unanimously to recommend him as president.Today's [...]
Continue ReadingMultihousing Conference in Euless scheduled for Sept. 25
Multihousing ConferenceSept. 25, 2010First Baptist Church, EulessREGISTER NOWAn estimated fifty percent of Texans live in multihousing communities, including apartment communities, manufactured housing communities, and public housing communities. An estimated ninety-six percent of these do not attend church anywhere. Although there are many valid evangelistic and ministry strategies to reach [...]
Continue ReadingVIEWPOINT: To reach Muslims, trade fear for love
RICHMOND, Va.?It isn't that Muslims aren't responsive to the Gospel, International Mission Board strategist Sam McAlister* says. The issue, he says, is that most Muslims have never heard it or seen a committed Christian live it out.Islam claims nearly one-fourth of the world's population ? 1.57 billion Muslims. But fear -- felt by both Muslims [...]
Continue ReadingSouthern Baptists grieve death of Filipino Luis Pantoja Criswell College professor and evangelical leader in Asia
KOTA KINABALU, Malaysia-Pastor Luis L. Pantoja, Jr., 63, an early professor at Criswell College, died Sept. 6 after suffering a heart attack while attending a spiritual retreat in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia. Southern Baptist leader Richard Land called Pantoja "one of the most important leaders of Evangelicalism in all of [...]
Continue ReadingLocal congregations go global in engaging unreached groups
Someone has observed, "Why should some hear the gospel twice when others haven't heard once?"That sentiment motivated Hillcrest Baptist Church in Cedar Hill and First Baptist Church of Keller to each adopt an unreached people group (UPG).FBC Keller adopted the Yalunka people of West Africa; the name of the [...]
Continue ReadingEngage Teams reignite passion for evangelism
"I read this much of Genesis last night!" a young boy, whose faith in Christ was only one day old, shared with Hailey Christian. The change in his attitude?a stark contrast to the one he had a few days earlier?occurred during the children's and youth outreach of a weeklong [...]
Continue ReadingSex ed: Parents have rights, input
Sex education in Texas public schools?and across the nation?has been a flashpoint of controversy. But Texas parents can avoid the angst associated with the subject matter by asking questions, reading curricula, and serving on a state-mandated local advisory board with direct influence over the content of health instruction in [...]
Continue ReadingOur man in Alpharetta
The announcement of Kevin Ezell as the presidential candidate for the Southern Baptist North American Mission Board answers a couple of important questions for our denomination. Those who thought much about NAMB knew this would be a hard slot to fill with the right man, because it has proven [...]
Continue ReadingSeeking God in Hollywood, coming up short
What's not to like about the movie "Eat Pray Love?" As it turns out, quite a lot. The PG-13 rating will attract a fair number of moviegoers for a date night or a girls' night out, and the movie is drawing crowds, finishing fourth at the box office the [...]
Continue ReadingKentucky pastor Kevin Ezell nominated NAMB president
UPDATED, Sept. 1, 4:00 p.m.PENSACOLA ?Louisville pastor Kevin Ezell has been nominated president of the North American Mission Board, search chairman Ted Traylor told Florida Baptist Witness Aug. 31.The recommendation of Ezell, senior pastor of Highview Baptist Church in Louisville and immediate past president of the Southern Baptist Pastors' Conference, [...]
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