Message from the Chair
Bill Brian,
TBC Chair

Greetings from Amarillo.

Summer seems to have sailed by faster than usual. Vacations have been enjoyed. Students are back in the classroom. Soon, it will be time for the annual meeting of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

This meeting of the BGCT, November 11–12, in Waco is of vital importance to Texas Baptists. The Missions Review and Initiatives Committee chaired by Clyde Glazener, pastor of Gambrell Street Baptist Church in Fort Worth, will present its report to convention messengers. Texas Baptists will have the opportunity to embrace a vision for cooperative missions in the 21st century.

Begin making plans now to attend the convention in Waco. Available hotels are listed on the BGCT website at www.bgct.org. Encourage other members of your church to attend. Encourage Baptists you know in other churches in your community to attend. This is a meeting of the Baptist General Convention of Texas that you and they won’t want to miss.

As BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade has said: “We need your voice as we make decisions about ministry and missions in Texas and around the world. We are stronger when you participate in every session.”

Plan to stay for the entire convention meeting in Waco which closes Tuesday night. Sometimes there is the temptation to leave after the business sessions are completed, but Tuesday evening, November 12 has all the promise of being the best part of the convention meeting.

Texas Baptists have much for which to be thankful for these days. Our brothers and sisters, messengers to the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas met in El Paso in June, its 92nd annual convention. Under the theme of “Renewing Ourselves for the Second Coming of Christ,” messengers embraced a vision that the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas will “become a united family of diverse, spiritually healthy churches networking and developing resources, leaders and organizational systems to impact Texas and the world with the presence of Christ.” We owe many thanks to Antonio Estrada, elected president of the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas, and to TBC board members, Rudy Camacho of Fort Worth and Albert Reyes of San Antonio, for their commitment to Hispanic Baptist churches in Texas and for encouraging them to be in partnership with the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

More than 600 messengers from African- American churches met in Lubbock in July for the African-American Fellowship Conference. I am grateful for the leadership of TBC board members, Michael Bell of Fort Worth and John Ogletree of Houston, and for BGCT Executive Board Staff Member Michael Evans for advancing a stronger relationship between African- American Baptist churches and the Baptist General Convention of Texas. The BGCT Office of African-American ministries, led by Michael Evans, strives to cooperate with other Baptist bodies to minister to African-Americans and others in fulfilling the great commission of Jesus Christ.

The Mary Hill Davis Week of Prayer, September 8–15, is the time for Texas Baptists to reaffirm their commitment of heart and hand for state missions. The offering, named for the woman who led Baptist women of Texas to set aside a week to pray for and give to missions in the state of Texas as they did for foreign and home missions, served for 26 years as vice president of Woman’s Missionary Union at the national level. She knew the importance both of foreign missions and state missions. I hope that you supported the state missions work of the Baptist General Convention of Texas by enthusiastically participating in the 2002 Mary Hill Davis Week of Prayer and gave generously.

Pray for Charles Wade, and for BGCT president Bob Campbell as final preparations are made for the annual meeting in Waco. Finally, pray for TBC executive director David Currie, for Associate Executive Director Vicky Trusdle, and Financial Assistant Charlotte Caffey, and others in the TBC office who work faithfully to help all of us carry out the mission of Texas Baptists Committed.

If you have not renewed your TBC membership, now is the time to do so, as TBC continues to inform Texas Baptists and encourage our BGCT leadership.

September 2002