Newsletter
September 1999

 

Articles By
David R. Currie,
Executive Director

A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE:  GOD'S LIGHTENING RODS



THE GREAT FUTURE OF BGCT
By Noah Rodriguez
It was a great privilege to serve as the second vice-president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas in 1999. 
Gratefully Baptist
By R. Keith Parks
(Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from Keith Parks chapter in Why I Am a Baptist: Reflections on Being Baptist in the 21st Century, printed here with permission from Smyth & Helwys Publishing.)
Jimmy Garcia III, Ethnic Missions Coordinator for the Baptist General Convention of Texas, will be the speaker for the eleventh annual Texas Baptists Committed breakfast.
Onward to 2005, BGCT!
By Ophelia Humphrey

As attainment of our Texas 2000 goals is being evaluated, I dare to dream new/old dreams for the next 5 years:

Recently this pew-sitter and possibly the only TBC member in a Southern Baptist Church, decided there must be some action that might help the Baptist I joined survive the onslaught of the fundamental group.
Texas Baptists should be aware of some inflammatory literature an organization apparently is mailing out to all Texas Baptist pastors. 
I am very grateful to our kind Lord for the many years of ministry he has given to me.  My work with churches and my fellow Baptists has been richly rewarding.
PRAYER IN PUBLIC SETTINGS
By Mike Chancellor
I have been reading with interest the reaction to the recent court ruling about praying before sports events.  For many, the refusal to allow student-led prayers before sporting events is another sign of America's steady march to moral bankruptcy.
I am just back from Brownwood where I attended the Howard Payne university Trustees meeting.
A little over a year ago my dad, Dr. Charles P. McLaughlin, passed away.  The first anniversary of his death and the long awaited arrival of the headstone for the cemetery in Paint Rock, Texas, created some moments of reflection.
TBC Convocation explores Kingdom of God
By Mark Wingfield & Dan Martin
Christians talk about the kingdom of God more than they are willing to do what is demanded to advance the kingdom of God, speakers said during the annual convocation of Texas Baptist Committed July 16-17 in San Angelo.
The future of Texas Baptists
by Charles Dodson
What a wonderful opportunity we have before us as Texas Baptists to live out the gospel with conviction and compassion into the next millennium!
We met in Atlanta because we believe that Jesus saves and that preaching the gospel is urgent business!
I want my children and grandchildren to grow up in a truly Baptistic convention. When I have grown weary of being so incredibly engaged in convention work, I've reminded myself: This is not for my generation alone; it is for those which come after us.

The next five years will present a tremendous challenge to Texas Baptists to write a new history. What it will be depends on our response.

If Texas Baptists are serious about following the biblical mandate to meet human needs, they should adjust Cooperative Program funding priorities to provide more money for human welfare ministries in the state, Ken Hall told supporters of Texas Baptists Committed July 17.
THOUGHTS ABOUT DAD FROM HIS SON
By Charles C. McLaughlin
My father had another side --  the man at home in the privacy of his family.

 

 


CO-CHAIR THOUGHTS FROM JEROLD MCBRIDE TWENTY YEARS LATER:  IT WILL NEVER BE OVER

After the Southern Baptists of Texas convention was formed, several people suggested to me that maybe Texas Baptists Committed was no longer needed.  The fundamentalists had given up and formed their own convention and things would get back to normal in Texas Baptist life with most of us cooperating like we used to do.


Quote from Ken Hall President, Buckner Baptist Benevolences
(at the TBC Convocation)

“One of the greatest issues facing our Texas Baptist churches today
is that we do not reflect the culture that surrounds us. We are
very white in a society that is increasingly
black or brown. Our
churches are middle class, yet one in every five families in Texas falls below the poverty line.

“Our church programs are dominated by a philosophy that protects
our Baptist comfort zones and neglects the issues that many
single-parents face. Churches throughout Texas state in their
mission statements that they exist to take the gospel to everyone,
but they struggle at finding ways to make contact with those outside their culture.”


More Quotes From the TBC Convocation




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