It is with gratitude that I have accepted the opportunity to serve a co-chair of Texas Baptist Committed along with Dean Dickens. I have supported and appreciated the work of the organization in helping Texas Baptists understand and stand for historic Baptist principles and practices since its inception.

I consider myself to be a missions leader. Therefore I express my gratitude to Texas Baptists Committed for the value they place upon Woman’s Missionary Union. Woman’s Missionary Union has been about the task of supporting missions, praying for missions, education in missions and doing missions for more than one hundred years. To create an environment for missions in every local church has been the aim of Woman’s Missionary Union for a century and more. Woman’s Missionary Union has been the organization in the church which has promoted and gathered in Lottie Moon, Annie Armstrong and Mary Hill Davis offerings for foreign, home and state missions.

Shock waves have rippled across the missions consciousness of thousands in Texas Baptist churches in recent days as the Southern Baptist Convention restructuring has taken from Woman’s Missionary Union the missions task of promoting the Lottie Moon and Annie Armstrong Offerings. In these uncertain days let us Texas Baptists remain strong in every church as Woman’s Missionary Union promotes and gathers in the Mary Hill Davis Offering for state missions. Indeed the Texas Baptist missions story is global! Let us, Texas Baptists, rise up to the global challenge of today.

Freedom to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to every individual in Texas and in every land is what Texas Baptists Committed is all about.

April 1995