BORGER?t1:place>First Baptist Church in the 14,000-population town of Borger helped more than 1,600 people who entered the church’s benevolence ministry facility, called Living Water Ministries, in 2003. And since the ministry began in late 2002, 143 people have prayed to receive Christ, the ministry reported.

Deacons at the church wished to provide practical ministry to their area’s needy, and after a church member donated a building, which the deacons renovated, Living Water Ministries was born.

The ministry’s guiding Scripture, board chairman Conny Moore said, is Isaiah 61:1-3: “Bring good news to the afflicted, bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to the captives, freedom to prisoners, comfort to all who mourn.”

A special projects offering administered through the ministry drew $6,000 and six other area churches signaling their intent to give monthly or yearly offerings to help with the ministry, Moore noted in a letter about Living Water.

Everyone who comes to the ministry is presented the gospel using the Four Spiritual Laws and volunteers must be born again and are trained to share the gospel.

“Whenever a person requests funds or clothing, or if they just come in and we can’t help them, that person is always asked if they know Jesus as Lord and Savior,” Moore wrote.

In 2003, the ministry gave 3,639 food baskets and $18,529 in financial assistance to needy families.

DALLAS?The spring 2004 edition of the Criswell Theological Review (CTR) tackles “open theism,” the belief that God’s knowledge is limited and that he changes his mind about things based on human circumstances. This aberrant theology has made inroads into evangelicalism, especially into the seminaries, said CTR Editor Alan Streett, professor of evangelism and pastoral ministry at The Criswell College.

CTR is the first academic journal to examine and address the openness issue as it relates to the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) controversy over whether to expel some of its members who embrace openness.

Two exclusive interviews with Darrell Bock and Norm Geisler, past presidents of the ETS, reveal how scholars can hold diametrically opposed opinions on the issue. Bock, a New Testament professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, believes ETS, as a society, is inclusive enough to embrace members with different orthodox theologies as long as they hold to inerrancy broadly defined. A different perspective is offered by Geisler, president of Southern Evangelical Seminary and past president of ETS. Geisler resigned after the ETS members voted to sustain the membership of Open Theism proponents Clark Pinnock of McMaster Divinity School in Canada and John Sanders of Huntington College in Indiana.

An article by Boyd Luterand Emily Hunter McGowin, “From Bad to Worse,” examines the theological implications of Pinnock’s open theism. Pinnock responds, followed by further response from Luter and McGowin.

Douglas Huffman’s article “Some Logical Difficulties in Open Theism” shows that despite how well-intentioned open theists are in attempting to explain why God “changes his mind” or why some of his prophecies “seemingly fail,” they are logically inconsistent in their analysis, he writes.

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary theology professor Bruce Ware takes aim at the faulty theological base of openness in his article “Robots, Royalty and Relationships.”

For TEXAN readers a one-year subscription to Criswell Theological Journal is available for $15 and a two-year subscription is $25. Write to: CTR, 4010 Gaston Ave., Dallas, TX 75246 and indicate you read about the offer in an SBTC publication.

Collegians can bless church with time, talent and freedom, SBTC consultant says.

“If a church is located in an area where college students live and exist, that’s reason enough” to begin ministering to those students, said Kevin Ueckert, collegiate ministry consultant for the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. Ueckert compares college students’ value for a church to that of senior adults, because their lack of time constraints and ability to serve provide great potential service in a congregation.

“College students have a great deal of freedom and not nearly as much responsibility as many segments of the church,” Ueckert said. “They create incredible servants in the body. And they can bless the life of a church almost like no other group.”

This has been the experience at Gardendale Baptist Church of Corpus Christi, where the SBTC aided in beginning a collegiate ministry over the last two years. Shortly after being called to the church, the church’s pastor, Micah Davidson, began to be burdened to reach out to the 10,000 college students in the Bay Area. Through what Davidson said was “a series of events that only God could orchestrate,” he connected with Ueckert and shared his vision to reach college students in the Corpus Christi area.

“We agreed it needed to be done,” Davidson said, “and we also agreed it would take a special person to pull it off. Over the next several months we began to pray for a leader to emerge who would spearhead the strategy.”

One of the SBTC’s available resources, an intern program, provides leaders for such endeavors. Through equipping, encouragement, and financial support, the SBTC partners with churches to facilitate the start of collegiate ministries. While the convention often locates these interns, it can also help train someone commissioned by the church itself.

The solution to Gardendale’s own search for a collegiate leader was Greg Darley, a recent graduate of Clemson University in South Carolina. Despite participating in a Fellowship of Christian Athletes ministry that served as many as 1,200 students weekly, Darley found himself yearning to minister to students through a church.

“The SBTC has been a huge part in my coming to Gardendale and Corpus Christi,” Darley said. “They are helping financially to have me here, but more important than that are the people ? to help me. There are some other pastors and college ministers that are available when I need advice or have questions.”

This networking, which Darley described as “an indispensable asset,” is another important benefit the SBTC provides for both new and established church collegiate ministries. “One of the things that we are trying to do,” Ueckert said, “is develop a good network, connecting churches with churches that are reaching students.” In particular, he said, he wants to connect various church leaders who have a passion for university ministry. “We really want to create a network of pastors, so that pastors who want to reach students can talk to pastors whose churches are reaching students.”

This emphasis on connecting senior pastors comes from Ueckert’s belief that they are vital in creating a successful church ministry to collegians. “I think the first key ingredient is a pastor who believes in reaching students. I don’t know of any church that’s effective in reaching college students that doesn’t have a pastor who believes in reaching college students.” By connecting pastors of churches ministering in this way with pastors who would like grow their own student impact, the SBTC establishes a powerful network for encouragement, training, and cooperation.

Likewise, even well established ministries can benefit from the support of the SBTC’s help in networking, Ueckert said. “I don’t know of a single ministry that exists in our state that doesn’t in some way need to be sharpened, and there’s probably somebody else in the state that’s doing something that could sharpen them. And we want to help facilitate some of that.”

Beyond the internship program and networking, the SBTC also provides many training opportunities.

“We do have seminars and workshops that we can provide on-site that can be led and taught by those who know college ministry,” Ueckert said. Or, if a church has simple questions, consulting can be provided. The SBTC can “help people know what to do and how to do it, one way or the other,” he noted.

In May, the SBTC will host its first collegiate workers workshop, called “Collegiate Ministry Link,” to aid networking among those congregations that are interested in reaching students or already ministering to collegians.

The workshop will be at T Bar M Ranch in New Braunfels, and free accommodations and meals will be provided to participants (with some restrictions). Through sessions by experienced colle

• For the third time in two years, Southern Baptist workers have died in the midst of their work. Again, the murders were in the name of a religion desperately wanting to be known for peaceful intentions. To be fair, Muslims have also been victims of terrorism in Iraq and other places. Man-made religions can never understand that death does not intimidate Christian workers. Our future is certain and in the hands of a God who lives and reigns.

• The Missouri Baptist Convention has experienced a set-back in its efforts to reclaim five rogue agencies. The five essentially cut the convention out of their governance a couple of years ago (but still expected convention funding) and have been involved in legal disputes since then. The MBC’s cause is just but by no means certain to prevail. You can read the details of the matter elsewhere. The point we must remember here is that no remedial effort can compete with knowledgeable, ongoing supervision of institutions over which we have some governing role. That applies to our churches, our civil institutions, as well as to our denominational entities. We should not build or fund institutions that we are unwilling to hold accountable. We definitely should not fund those who are unwilling to be accountable.

• Remember that we are at war. A year after open hostilities began in Iraq, we still have troops on the ground there and in several other countries. Our interest in them and prayers for them should be constant and not just prompted by the news reports of bombings and ambushes.

Outbreak 2K4 aims to equip SBTC students for ministry leadership.

Do you feel the burn? Tom Cottar, student ministry associate of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, is praying several hundred students this July will feel it the way the prophet Jeremiah did and spread its heat when they return to their campuses next fall.

“Outbreak 2K4: Feel the Burn,” the SBTC’s student leadership event, is scheduled July 12-16 at the University of North Texas in Denton.

Its theme is from Jeremiah 20:9: “If I say, ‘I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,’ then within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.”

This is the second year for Outbreak, a leadership camp not grade-level oriented and focused on equipping students for answering tough questions in a post-Christian culture and being salt and light to their peers, Cottar said.

The event will deal with basic Bible doctrines and also include some “culturally relevant issues” such as homosexuality, creation vs. evolution, Islam, and “Jesus-style” servant leadership. It will also include character studies of Moses, David and Nehemiah, ministry to fellow students, and basic life skills.

Separate curricula are specified for first-year and second-year Outbreak participants regardless of grade level, Cottar noted.

Second-year students will be able to participate in a one-day missions project on Thursday of the camp.

“Our philosophy has always been that leadership, the fruit of leadership, always shows itself in ministry and in missions and that our students need some dirt under their fingernails,” Cottar said. “They need to get out and get their hands dirty and get involved in those kinds of things.

“Unfortunately, we’ve taken the stance that teenagers are the church of the future when they ought to be the church of right now. They ought to be involved in ministry right now?not just being told that’s something they can do down the road.”

Aubrey Spears, who was camp pastor last year, has accepted an invitation to return this year. Ross King and Band will lead the students in musical worship.

Last year’s event drew 263 students. Cottar said he would love to see 500 and expects about 400.

On-campus housing and meals are included in the enrollment fee, which is $189 per student through April 15 and $199 from April 15 – June 12.

“Of course, we’ll have the standard wild and crazy recreation during the day,” Cottar noted.

Also scheduled is a youth camp in Commerce, July 26-30; the inaugural SBTC preteen camp June 1-4 at Latham Springs; and the annual Youth Evangelism Conference July 16-17 at The Criswell College in Dallas.

Registration packets and more information can be had at www.planetstudents.org or by e-mailing Cottar at tomc@sbtexas.com.