2004 October/November

CBF OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2004

fellowship!

C O O P E R AT I V E B A P T I S T F E L L O W S H I P

INSIDE

Operation Inasmuch Mobilizes Volunteers

New Moderator Values World Baptist Family

Conference Encourages Student Dialogue

Offering for Global Missions Touches Lives

Asheville Church Sings and Builds in Bolivia

W W W. T H E F E L L OW S H I P. I N F O

KidsHeart Volunteers Share Christ’s Love through Labor in Rio Grande Valley A PILE OF DISCARDED SHINGLES

lay in the summer sun outside Alicia Pena’s home

in Progreso, Texas. The roof had been stripped down to its rotted plywood.

Delroy Collins, drenched in sweat, straddled the center beam of the roof and gave directions to the crews from First Baptist Church, College Station, Texas, and First Baptist Church, Copperas Cove, Texas.

On the ground, youth from the two churches played with Pena’s children while taking a break from the

scorching Texas sun. The single mother of 10 lives in a dilapidated house where the only sewer drain is a plastic pipe that empties into the ground outside, leaving a stifling odor that grows worse as the day heats up.

In less than a week, the crews from the two churches [continues p. 2] replaced the roof and sidewalls of

Russ Dilday photo/Buckner News Service

Local children make a mad dash at the start of a dodgeball game during Vacation Bible School at the Progreso Community Center during KidsHeart 2004.

COOPERATIVE BAPTIST FELLOWSHIP’S MISSION: SERVING CHRISTIANS AND CHURCHES AS THEY DISCOVER AND FULFILL THEIR GOD-GIVEN MISSION.

GLOBAL MISSIONS & MINISTRIES Russ Dilday photo/Buckner News Service

Craig Bird photo

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the house as part of the second annual KidsHeart missions project sponsored

by Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Texas, Buckner Children and Family Services and CBF Global Missions.

Nearly 320 people from 19 churches descended on the Lower Rio Grande Valley in late July. The one-week intensive missions effort, which nearly doubled in size this year, is in conjunction with CBF Global Mission’s Partners in Hope initiative, a long-term commitment to transformational development in 20 of the poorest counties in the United States. The Fellowship and Buckner have formed a Sergio Salazar, a first year student at Baptist University of the Americas in San Antonio and a partnership to address the needs of Mexico-certified medical doctor, conducts free medical clinics with La Blanca Baptist Church. residents living in low-income commuFamily Services, says the Fellowship partnership is making nities known as colonias along the Texas-Mexico border. a difference for residents of the Lower Rio Grande Valley In addition to eight construction projects, missions while sharing the love of Jesus at the same time. volunteers who participated in the KidsHeart project led “I think if Jesus was here among us, He would be here Vacation Bible School at nine sites each morning and sponwith a hammer and nails putting on the roof, putting in a sored five sports camps during the evening. They also led bathroom, meeting people and sharing with them physically sewing and quilting classes, computer classes, provided dental and medical clinics, led a basketball KidsHeart Participants clinic for junior high FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH , Church, Arlington girls, sorted more than Kannapolis, N.C., joined the • Mosaic Community Church, 300,000 items of clothing following Texas churches in Seguin for distribution by the Rio Grande Valley for • Royal Lane Baptist Church, Buckner to low-income KidsHeart 2004: Dallas families, and handed out • Ash Creek Baptist Church, • Second Baptist Church, 525 backpacks for eleAzle Lubbock mentary school children.

• First Baptist Church, • Trinity Baptist Church, Debbie Ferrier, College Station Harker Heights missions pastor at Trinity • First Baptist Church, • Wilshire Baptist Church, Baptist Church, San Covington Dallas Antonio, and moderator • First Baptist Church, • The Fellowship at Copperas Cove Westcreek, San Antonio of CBF Texas, says the • Cross Roads Baptist • Trinity Baptist Church, San purpose of the KidsHeart Church, Rotan Antonio missions project is “to • Elkins Lake Baptist Church, • First Baptist Church, reach these people for Huntsville Harlingen.

Christ. They’re right here • First Baptist Church, Members of Texas Baptist Delroy Collins of First Baptist Church, in our backyard. We’re Gatesville Men provided lunch for the College Station, scrapes away shingles hoping to change the lives • Hope Community Church, volunteers each day. The from the roof of homeowner Alicia Pena. of the people who live Belton group utilized its disaster here in the Valley, and we’re hoping to bring them the mes• Heartland Hills Community relief truck to feed the sage that we love them and that we want to build relationChurch, San Antonio missions teams. ships with them.”

• Meadow Lane Baptist Felipe Garza, vice president of Buckner Children and

C O O P E R AT I V E B A P T I S T F E L L O W S H I P

www.thefellowship.info

San Antonio Church Exemplifies Short-Term Missions Trip Model GOD WAS IN the details when

volunteers from Woodland Baptist Church in San Antonio, Texas, participated in their first hands-on missions project beyond the city limits.

Though the 15-year-old congregation has a wideranging involvement in local missions, participating in KidsHeart was a new venture.

“God just kept showing up, almost from the first day we started planning it right on through to the Sunday we gave our report to the church,” says Phyllis Nichols, the lay leader who served as the trip coordinator. “Since we had never done this before and because we only run about 250 in attendance, I thought I would be spiritual and ask God

for 12 volunteers. That’s a good biblical number. And we set a budget of $2,000.”

When the primary work assignments came in – to staff a Vacation Bible School and remodel the kitchen of the pastor’s house at La Blanca Baptist Church, Nichols began to worry. “I needed somebody to run a VBS and that’s a tough job, and the woman who had just directed the VBS at Woodland said she wanted to go,” Nichols recalls. “Then I heard what bad shape that kitchen was in, and a master carpenter called and signed up.”

Meanwhile the troop count swelled to 42. “I asked God how He expected me to feed that many people and He sent us a chef,” Nichols says.

afford this. I don’t know how to repay them, but my heart goes out to them. I don’t have the words to describe how grateful I am.” f!

For more information about KidsHeart, contact Rick McClatchy at (210) 732-2225 or cbftx@aol.com. For more information about Partners in Hope, the Fellowship’s rural poverty initiative, contact Tom Prevost at (662) 871-2444 or tprevost@thefellowship.info.

Russ Dilday photo/Buckner News Service

By Scott Collins, Buckner News Service

Stefan Neasman, 16, a member of First Baptist Church, Harlingen, paints the home of Joe Garcia.

The budget got bumped to $4,500 and the call went out.

“We decided early on that, to get everyone involved, those who couldn’t go should pay the costs for those who did make the trip, as well as bake cookies for us to take with us and provide prayer cards to pass out during the week,” Nichols says.

At the Sunday morning commissioning service for the group, Nichols announced that gifts totaling $4,493 had come in and quipped, “I just know we’ve reached the goal because somebody out there has $7.”

Unknown to her a third grade boy in the church, David Fong, had been saving his allowance.

That morning in Sunday school he had turned in his envelope but it hadn’t been counted. It was a five dollar bill and two ones.

Nichols was concerned

about translators. Two Spanishspeaking members asked to come, and Nichols didn’t know that a member of the church’s missions committee had invited two students from the Baptist University of the Americas and their spouses to participate, and they all were natives of Mexico.

During KidsHeart, church members slept on the gym floor at First Baptist Church, Weslaco, worked through the 105 degree heat, shared meals and waited for their turn to take showers. When their trip was over, many tired folks headed home. No one who experienced KidsHeart expects to ever be the same.

By contributing writer Craig Bird, San Antonio, Texas

www.thefellowship.info OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2004

GLOBAL MISSIONS & MINISTRIES

while sharing the gospel,” Garza says.

Collins, the volunteer roofer from First Baptist Church, College Station, says he was motivated to participate in the missions project because, as Christians, “we should sacrifice our time and our sweat to help out others. It’s important for us to come here and to show Christ’s love toward them by helping them and by sharing Christ and talking about His salvation.”

Collins’ pastor Rodney McGlothlin served as coordinator of this year’s project for CBF Texas and is moderator-elect of the organization. “We’ve said we’re here for the long haul,” McGlothlin emphasizes.

CBF Texas Coordinator Rick McClatchy says some churches with smaller memberships benefit from the fact that Buckner and CBF handle the logistics. “If they couldn’t partner with us, they might not even make a missions trip.”

Joe Garcia, a migrant worker whose home received much-needed attention from KidsHeart volunteers, has lived in his house for 22 years.

“I never figured people would come and help somebody without me giving something to them,” Garcia says.

“They actually took their time to come and help me for free, and I don’t know how to repay them,” he adds. “I’m grateful they’re here helping me out because I couldn’t

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I N 1 9 9 4 , Snyder The Fellowship Memorial Baptist Missional Church in Church Initiative Fayetteville, N.C., was a military-town church ready for a new challenge. David Crocker, Snyder’s new pastor, and the church staff worked on ideas to help revitalize the congregation. They envisioned a short local missions blitz with the ambitious goal of involving more than half of the people attending Sunday morning services.

Blending military and biblical terminology, they called the project “Operation Inasmuch” (OIAM). With inspiration from the parable and the words of Jesus in Matthew 25, the developers of Operation Inasmuch set out to involve as many people as possible in a one-day effort to minister to “the least of these” in the Fayetteville area. The first event drew 450 participants from the church — two thirds of the average Sunday attendance.

“The day after the first OIAM, some members came to me and said, ‘that’s our idea of missions,’” Crocker says.

“Operation Inasmuch became the heart of the church’s mission statement. It changed the identity of the church in the community. From that point on, the church was sold on it.”

And so, apparently, were a lot of others.

More than 300 churches representing many denominations now participate, as the idea has spread from North Carolina into Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, and even across the Atlantic, where the Burton Latimer Baptist Church in England held an Operation David Renfro works on house renovation during Inasmuch last Operation Inasmuch. year. “When you start something like this,” Crocker says, “you have no idea where it’s going.”

Crocker believes all ages gravitate toward expressing their concern for missions in local and personal ways.

C O O P E R AT I V E B A P T I S T F E L L O W S H I P

www.thefellowship.info

Photos courtesy of Operation Inasmuch

BUILDING COMMUNITY 4

Operation Inasmuch Mobilizes Volunteers in Hands-on Missions Involvement

Janet Busman cares for a young girl while her parents shop in the rummage sale as part of Operation Inasmuch.

“They want hands-on involvement,” he says.

Operation Inasmuch attempts to get church members outside of the church and into the community. But it’s not about church image. “It’s about doing what Jesus said,” Crocker explains. “It’s practicing what we say we believe. I grow weary of how often we gather in comfortable places and talk about doing missions. And I know that when you offer a way to do missions, laypeople in particular are very enthusiastic about it.”

And Operation Inasmuch events give them a lot to be enthusiastic about. A recent event in Knoxville, Tenn., where Crocker is now pastor of Central Baptist Church of Fountain City, included Presbyterians and Methodists and provided hands-on missions activities for almost all age groups. That is a key to involvement, says Martha Johnson, a registered nurse who has been Central’s volunteer coordinator for three Operation Inasmuch efforts.

During the April event, children in the church were part of a pizza party given for residents at a Ronald McDonald House. The children also packed personal-care kits that were distributed to people in local homeless shelters.

Senior adults participated in light assembly projects.

Other church members prepared and froze 112 casseroles for the Fellowship Center, an organization that houses out-of-town families of local hospital patients.

Central sponsored a baby shower, with all gifts donated to a home for unwed mothers. They prepared 500 “compassion bags.” Each item inside had a Bible verse attached. Church

BUILDING COMMUNITY

members sorted food and clothes that had been donated to the Fountain City Ministry Center, an interdenominational project of eight churches that is housed at Central Baptist.

Youth and adults, working under the direction of project leaders, completed 20 construction-related projects during the Saturday event, including painting, roofing, landscaping and the installation of a wheelchair ramp in a home.

Even when construction is involved, the costs are kept to a minimum, Crocker says. It’s often possible to partner with local groups that are “pass-through organizations” for HUD-funded projects. “HUD makes money available to almost every community in the nation for repair of resident-owned property for people who are unable to do the repairs themselves,” Crocker says. “These organizations are looking for volunteers. Our proposal is, ‘You provide the materials; we provide the volunteers.’”

The Operation Inasmuch churches provide lunches for all participating volunteers. And churches must purchase items to be used in the personal-care kits. But the average out-of-pocket cost for Central for an Operation Inasmuch with approximately 500 volunteers has been only $3,000.

“So often people are willing to donate things,” Crocker says. “Lots of businesses are eager to help out when they understand what this is.”

In many Operation Inasmuch projects, those ministering and those ministered to are in direct contact. Does this then become an evangelism effort? And, Crocker was asked, how do you keep the recipients from feeling patronized?

In home repair projects, volunteers are asked to take time to visit with homeowners, get to know them, share with them, and pray with and for them. Operation Inasmuch gives homeowners a Bible with the names of the volunteers listed inside. “While volunteers are putting on a new roof, other volunteers are meeting and talking with the owners,” Crocker says. “We do ask volunteers to inquire about their spiritual situation and, to whatever extent they will allow, to share with them. But we don’t want it done in a heavy-handed way.”

Operation Inasmuch has contributed to church growth at Central Baptist. “We’ve had people join the church because they were impressed that people would do such things,” Crocker says.

But public relations and church growth are not Operation Inasmuch goals, Johnson emphasizes. “You have to be careful about the image you want to project. We don’t want to imply that we’re doing something that nobody else is doing.

“It’s not an opportunity to brag about your church. It should be done more quietly than that. It’s an opportunity to know that our church has a presence in the community.

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Volunteers provide a car checkup service as part of an Operation Inasmuch community outreach.

And people know that we are out there helping other people. Not that it’s something great. It’s just something that we are supposed to do. With just a little bit of effort,” she says, “you can help a lot of people.” f!

For more information about Operation Inasmuch, go to www.operationinasmuch.com. A manual, Operation Inasmuch: Mobilizing Believers Beyond the Walls of the Church, is available at a nominal charge from the Web site.

For more information about the Missional Church Initiative, contact Bo Prosser at (770) 220-1631 or bprosser@the fellowship.info, or Terry Hamrick at (770) 220-1615 or thamrick@thefellowship.info.

By freelance writer Wayne Grinstead, Atlanta

Related Resources THE FOLLOWING RESOURCES provide information about becoming a missional congregation:

• The Missional Journey: Being the Presence of Christ Journal.

A 32-page information booklet, journal and CD. Includes suggested resources and processes for focusing a church on its mission. A VHS version of the CD is also available. (free, plus shipping) • The Missional Journey: Being the Presence of Christ Journal Video. Offers an introduction into the Fellowship’s Missional Church Initiative. (free, plus shipping) • Missional Church: Bookmarks and Links. Annotated bibliography introduces the user to literature related to the missional movement. (free, plus shipping) • Missional Journey Guide. Expands on The Missional Journey: Being the Presence of Christ Journal. ($29.95 for workbook, CD and binder, plus shipping) Order from The CBF Store at (888) 801-4223 or www.thefellowship.info. www.thefellowship.info OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2004

GLOBAL MISSIONS & MINISTRIES

Global Service Corps Allows Personnel to Test Missions Waters

Courtesy of Keri Gage

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into song during a field trip with international students, it was at just the right time – with just the right song. Singing “Jesus Loves Me” over and over again from the backseat of the car, Cayden spawned questions from the Chinese couple carpooling with Cayden’s mother, Michelle, one of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s Global Missions field personnel.

“They looked at Michelle, and they asked, ‘Where did she learn that song?’

Keri Gage assists students as part of Touching It really opened up Miami With Love’s after-school program. conversation about God, Christianity and what Michelle believed,” says Matt Norman, who serves with his wife through Global Service Corps.

Matt and Michelle are international student ministry consultants in Toronto, primarily among York University’s 50,000 students. Although the Normans had never officially worked with international students, Matt was a missionary kid. “I felt like an international student coming back to the U.S. for college,” he says.

GSC service terms range from one to three years, a short

Ball Finishes 3-year GSC Term Shonnie Ball says her Global Service Corps experience “radically changed” her future.

After recently completing her three-year service term at New York City’s Rauschenbusch Metro Ministries, Ball started Brooklyn Law School this fall with plans to enter public interest law focusing on AIDS advocacy. She plans to continue volunteering with the youth ministry that she directed as field personnel.

C O O P E R AT I V E B A P T I S T F E L L O W S H I P

Ronnie Adams, the ministry’s program director of nine years and one of CBF’s Global Missions field personnel, emphasizes that Ball reached beyond her youth ministry assignment. “She hasn’t just ministered to teens but to the whole family,” he says.

Ball volunteered at Miracle House, which provides housing and support to AIDS and cancer patients coming to New York for treatment. In addition to her duties directing ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages), helping with homework and preparing students for college

www.thefellowship.info

opportunity “to test the water, a good apprenticeship,” Matt says. Keri Gage, one of the GSC field personnel serving in Florida, says the GSC program is ideal “if you’re sure God’s calling you to service, but you don’t know which kind.”

GSC seemed like a natural choice for Gage, who was a CBF staff member in Atlanta when she decided to pursue a missions assignment. “I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do long term, and I knew GSC positions were short term and that could help solidify my call one way or another.”

Gage, volunteer coordinator and family minister at Touching Miami With Love, finishes her two-year term in December but is considering a third year.

While Gage and the Normans had to raise a portion of their finances, the GSC program now fully funds its field personnel.

One year into a two-year term, Michelle Norman raves about the program. “It’s definitely been a growing experience personally, in ministry, as a family and culturally,” Michelle says. “It’s been an incredible experience.” f!

Current GSC opportunities are listed at www.destination missions.net. Initial applications, due Feb. 15, 2005, can be downloaded and mailed to the Atlanta resource center.

Approved candidates are commissioned in June and reach the field in August.

By Carla Wynn, CBF Communications intern

pre-tests, Ball also volunteered in the community food pantry and clothing closet.

Adams will miss the ministry support Ball provided. “She has been a wonderful support, a good friend and gone far beyond what we asked of her,” he says. “She really has involved herself in not only the job but in the community.”

Filling Ball’s GSC position is Jesse Loper, who began his two-year assignment in August.

The Fellowship’s October 2004 missions education curriculum highlights Rauschenbusch Metro

Courtesy of field personnel

W H E N 2 - A N D - A - H A L F - Y E A R - O L D Cayden Norman burst

Shonnie Ball with Ronnie Adams

Ministries. (Annual subscription: adult and youth, $20; children and preschool, $80. Shipping will be charged.)

To order, contact The CBF Store at (888) 801-4223 or www.thefellowship.info.

LEADERSHIP PROFILES

Strengthening Baptist Family Ties Motivates New Fellowship Moderator First Baptist Church of Christ, has a world view for his new role as Cooperative Baptist Fellowship moderator.

“I want to help CBF take its place among the world Baptist family by strengthening ties to the Baptist World Alliance,” says Setzer of his goals for the coming year. “I have appointed a blue-ribbon task force of some of CBF’s best and brightest to brainstorm and strategize around this issue” (see sidebar).

Moderator is the highest elected position within the Fellowship. Some of Setzer’s duties include serving as chair for Coordinating Council meetings and helping plan and preside at the 2005 General Assembly.

Setzer, the first moderator from Georgia, says he was surprised to be nominated. The North Carolina native adds, “Once I got up off the floor, I decided to do it!”

As a part of the Fellowship since it started more than a decade ago, Setzer says he has always loved what it stands for. About five years ago, Setzer became actively involved on the national level and was chosen to serve on the Coordinating Council, where he chaired a search committee.

Setzer sees one of his objectives as tapping into the “enormous talent and energies of our Coordinating Council – the 80 or so folks from all over who shape and shepherd our movement between General Assemblies.”

Pastoring his congregation at First Baptist, Macon, remains high on Setzer’s list of accomplishments. “What a privilege to pastor a congregation of Christ-centered, Bible-based, freedom-loving Baptists,” he says.

Personally, Setzer is most proud of “being ever more deeply in love with my wife and raising a bright, dynamic,

Setzer Names Task Force to Explore Ways to Partner with BWA Bob Setzer Jr.’s first official action as the Fellowship’s new moderator was the appointment of a task force on the Baptist World Alliance to explore ways the Fellowship can be a good partner.

“Fellowship Baptists are excited about being admitted into our world Baptist family,”

Setzer says. “We look forward to joining hands and hearts with our Baptist brothers and sisters from all over the world.”

Walter Shurden, executive director of the Center for Baptist Studies at Mercer University in Macon, Ga., will serve as chair of the task force, and Hardy Clemons,

spiritually- alive daughter.” He and his wife, Bambi, have an adult daughter, Whitney.

Excited about the challenges ahead, Setzer makes an appeal to Fellowship Baptists: “If everyone would consider praying for me on a regular basis, I would be truly grateful and my Bob Setzer Jr., CBF’s new moderator, stands in front of First Baptist Church, Macon, where he leadership has served as pastor since 1996. enhanced.”

Setzer recently wrote Christianity for Beginners, a six-week course designed to introduce unchurched people to the Christian faith.

This small-group, discussion-based learning experience focuses on Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and significance in our lives, concluding with an emphasis on making a decision to follow Christ and being baptized. There is also a brief overview of Baptist distinctives. f!

Beau Cabell photo/The Macon Telegraph

R O B E R T B . “ B O B ” S E T Z E R J R . , pastor of Macon's

For more information, visit www.christianityforbeginners.org.

By staff writer Jo Upton

retired pastor of First Baptist Church, Greenville, S.C., has agreed to serve as vice chair.

The other members of the task force are: • Carolyn Anderson, coordinator, Florida CBF, Lakeland, Fla.; • Marv Knox, editor, The Baptist Standard, Dallas, Texas; • Emmanuel L. McCall, pastor, Christian Fellowship Baptist Church, College Park, Ga.; • Julie Pennington-Russell,

pastor, Calvary Baptist Church, Waco, Texas; • Guy Sayles Jr., pastor, First Baptist Church, Asheville, N.C.; • Barbara Baldridge, CBF Global Missions co-coordinator; and Setzer will serve on the committee as ex officio members.

By Lance Wallace, CBF Communications

www.thefellowship.info OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2004

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GLOBAL MISSIONS & MINISTRIES 8

Kentucky Teens Create Bracelets for Missions A G R O U P O F T E E N A G E G I R L S in Kentucky found a big pile of beads could make a big difference in the lives of people a world away.

The 15 girls, all part of a youth missions group at Faith Baptist Church in Georgetown, have spent the last year raising $2,050 for missions work in Africa.

The teens call their group SPAM, which stands for Supporting People and Missions.

The group first became interested in doing a missions project when Lynn Smith, a registered nurse and moderator for Kentucky Baptist Fellowship, visited and told them about the work she and other volunteers did with CBF Global Missions field personnel Fran and Lonnie Turner in Angola, says Heather Barron, who leads the youth with Gayla Thompson.

The youth wanted to do something to raise money, but couldn’t come up with a fundraiser idea, Barron says.

“Then a woman I work with told me she had a lot of loose beads, and offered to show the girls how to make bracelets with them,” Barron says. The woman then donated a large number of beads for the girls’ use. More beads were donated from two other sources as well.

“With all the donated beads, we were able to give 100 percent of the profits we made from the bracelets back to missions,” Barron explains. SPAM sold enough bracelets to raise $1,250 for the first missions project to help purchase an ambulance for the Angolan village, Barron says.

A few months later, missions volunteer Brandy Albritton visited Faith Baptist. Albritton, a CBF Leadership Scholar attending Baptist Seminary of Kentucky, told the girls about

Leonard, Lolley Highlight Foundation’s 2005 Baptist History Tour COOPERATIVE BAPTIST

Fellowship Foundation is offering a 15-day Baptist history tour of Europe featuring guides Bill Leonard, dean of Wake Forest Divinity School, and Randall Lolley, former Southeastern Seminary president.

The tour includes a stop at

C O O P E R AT I V E B A P T I S T F E L L O W S H I P

the Baptist World Alliance centenary congress in Birmingham, England, where participants will experience the opening ceremony, hear pastor and best-selling author Rick Warren, and be a student in former U.S. president Jimmy Carter’s international Sunday school class.

www.thefellowship.info

missions work among children infected with or orphaned by HIV/AIDS in Kenya.

The teens then created bracelets with black beads and a red heart in the center with the slogan “Have a Heart for AIDS Orphans,” and sold enough to raise $800 for the New Life Home orphanage in Nairobi.

In total, the girls sold close to 3,000 bracelets to family and friends throughout their community. “We’ve pretty much saturated the market,” Barron laughs. “The girls were even calling relatives across the country to buy their bracelets.”

The youth group still has beads left, and is looking for a way to use them in another project to benefit missions work.

Barron adds, “We’re looking for ideas, because we are still passionate about missions.” f!

The Fellowship’s November 2004 missions education curriculum focuses on friends of Africa. (Annual subscription: adult and youth, $20; children and preschool, $80. Shipping will be charged.) Order from The CBF Store at (888) 801-4223 or www.thefellowship.info.

Use the contribution envelope provided in this issue to enable the Offering for Global Missions to meet its $6.1 million goal.

Please mark your check “Offering for Global Missions.” See p. 12-14 for Offering resources.

By freelance writer Victoria Moon, Atlanta

The tour will also visit Prague, Czech Republic, home to International Baptist Theological Seminary.

The trip is July 18-Aug. 1, 2005, and costs approximately $3,900, according to Don Durham, CBF Foundation president and trip organizer.

The price includes lodging, most meals and airfare from Atlanta or Washington D.C. Participants can subsidize their airfare with frequent flier miles,

Durham says. The cost does not include additional airfare to departure cities or BWA congress registration.

Durham says this "enjoyable trek through Baptist history" will take about 40 participants.

Contact the CBF Foundation at (888) 322-3018 for more information and reservations.

By Carla Wynn, CBF Communications intern

Courtesy of Passport, Inc.

W H E N K R I S T E N S M I T H , one of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s Global Missions field personnel, passed out candy to a group of PASSPORTkids! campers, she gave it to only two of them. She illustrated how only two out of 10 international students are invited into an American home during their stay.

When Smith asked campers what they thought, one replied, “I don’t think we’re very hospitable.”

These are the kinds of lessons third through sixth-graders learned as part of this summer’s first-ever More than 800 campers attended PASSPORTkids! camps in five states.

PASSPORTkids! camps. As a partnership between Birmingham, Ala.-based house, hearing their music, tasting their food, hearing their Passport, Inc., and the Fellowship, 815 children stories and having real Romany money,” Smith explains. participated in camps held in Alabama, North Carolina, McClintock says the Romany were chosen for a special Tennessee, Missouri and Virginia. This year’s theme was reason.

“As we studied the peoples among whom the CBF “On the Edge.” has worked, the Romany stood out as the Samaritans of Due to the success of PASSPORT youth camps, children’s our day.

For a thousand years, they have been reviled, ministers began asking for a camp for a younger age group. imprisoned, enslaved, executed, banished and forced to According to PASSPORTkids! Coordinator Mark the edge of existence.”

McClintock, the goal was to create a camp experience Elizabeth Richards, one of CBF’s Global Missions field designed especially for third- through sixth-graders. personnel, spent a week at the camp held in Montebello, “We wanted to integrate worship, Bible study and misVa., and talked to campers about her work with the sions into a unique blend that would help campers learn of Bedouin of the Middle East. “It was very easy to draw God’s missional call to every person,” McClintock says. similarities between the Bedouin and the Romany,” she Campers’ days were organized into different rotations, says. which included missions study, worship and recreation.

Campers also had ample time to play amid their missions Smith, who works in Los Angeles with international students studies.

“The children participated in crafts, drama and and their families at the University of Southern California, canoeing,” Smith says. “They also thoroughly enjoyed led a rotation on “What Does a Missionary Do?” going down the rockslide.”

“Not all of the children knew that missionaries could As a result of the PASSPORTkids! camps’ success, live in the United States, too,” she says. “We brainstormed McClintock says some changes will be made for next year. ways that they could reach out to internationals where they “We are increasing the size of our staff in anticipation of lived. The kids also had the opportunity to make origami greater numbers of campers, and we are adding a session and play games from countries around the world.” in Texas to our travel itinerary. The theme for 2005 will be The children also learned about the Romany (or Gypsy ‘Making a Splash!’ and we will encounter the people of Bali.” f! people). Campers donated several thousand crayons to be

assembled with Bible activity books, along with an offering of nearly $8,000, for the Ruth School for Romany children.

Campers also took part in a Romany fair.

The fair allowed the “children to experience a taste of what life is like for the Romany people by seeing a typical

For more information about PASSPORTkids!, go to www.pass port-kids.org, call (800) 769-0210, or e-mail mark@passport camps.org.

By contributing writer Traci Rylands, Nashville, Tenn. www.thefellowship.info OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2004

GLOBAL MISSIONS & MINISTRIES

PASSPORTkids! Campers Live ‘On the Edge’ with Missions

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LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

Grant Provides Funding for Creative Student Ministry at Alabama Church

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ture the attention of many college students these days, but that’s precisely how Ruth Perkins Lee introduced a new Bible study for local college-age adults at Auburn First Baptist Church in Auburn, Ala. And it worked.

Lee, minister of students, is currently completing her second year of a three-year grant the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship provided to Auburn FBC for the express purpose of hiring a college minister. “My husband [Scott] and I both have a passion for college ministry because we recognize the important role the local church can play in the major life decisions of college students,” Lee says.

The Fellowship agrees. “We believe strongly in the value and importance of ministry with college-age persons,” says Terry Hamrick, CBF coordinator for leadership development.

“This is an important time of vocational exploration and discernment. Our goal is to learn from their [Auburn FBC] process and use what they have learned to assist and encourage other congregations to make collegiate ministry a priority.”

When Lee first started at the church, she spent the majority of her time talking about the positive and negative aspects of the existing college ministry with students who were already active members.

“We realized that other than Sunday school, most of the students did not see each other,” says Lee, a graduate of Mercer University’s McAfee School of Theology. “We started the Tuesday night Bible studies, including dinner, so that we could all get to know each other better. The first summer we watched ‘VeggieTales’ videos and learned how to laugh and hang out together.”

In addition to their weekly Bible studies, the group holds a Second Sunday Lunch to ensure that once a month everyone gets a chance to sit down, relax and catch up with one another.

“My main goal in the college ministry is to get to know the students,” Lee says. “Students want to know that someone cares for them and keeps up with them.

“I am often amazed at how many questions students will answer openly and honestly if you take the time to ask and listen,” she adds. “Often, these conversations lead to deeper conversations concerning the spiritual aspects of their lives. By paying attention to their lives, I have opportunities to minister to them in specific ways that meet their needs.”

One way of ministering to the specific needs of college-age adults is to incorporate their friends and their culture into their church life. For example, just as most college ministries C O O P E R AT I V E B A P T I S T F E L L O W S H I P

www.thefellowship.info

Courtesy of Ruth Perkins Lee

Y O U W O U L D N ’ T T H I N K “VeggieTales” videos would cap-

Ruth Perkins Lee (front, left) builds relationships with students as part of her ministry at Auburn First Baptist Church.

are winding down for the summer, the Auburn FBC group gears up their “Theology in the Theaters” program. After viewing a movie, the group gathers to discuss the film’s theology and its relevance to their everyday lives.

As fall rolls around and the dorms open for a new school year, the group coordinates their largest outreach effort by handing out fliers describing their ministry along with bottles of water to students moving in.

Having celebrated her two-year anniversary in May, Lee has watched with enthusiasm the group’s growth during her tenure. “Our group has developed into one that enjoys being together – both to hang out and to study,” she says.

“The students are excited about what is going on. They enjoy having a place where they feel welcomed, both in the college group and in the church as a whole.” f!

For information about the college ministry at Auburn FBC, contact Ruth Perkins Lee at (334) 887-8506 or Ruth@auburnfbc.org.

For more information about Antiphony, a new conference for university students sponsored by CBF Global Missions and The Samuel Project, see p. 11.

For more information about the Fellowship’s commitment to collegiate ministry, contact Terry Hamrick at (770) 220-1615 or thamrick@thefellowship.info.

By contributing writer Amy Walker, Atlanta

C O O P E R AT I V E B A P T I S T F E L L O W S H I P Global

Missions and The Samuel Project – a partnership of the Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond and Passport, Inc. – are sponsoring Antiphony, a new conference for university students and young adults, Dec. 29, 2004 - Jan. 2, 2005, at the Wynfrey Hotel in Birmingham, Ala. The theme of this event is “God’s Call, The World’s Cry, My Answer.” As the conference’s name suggests, its schedule of events will involve dialogue on both vocational calling and global missions.

“We want conversations and discussions to take place that will help these students to realize who God created them to be,” says Amy Whipple Derrick, CBF associate coordinator for Global Service Corps and Student Missions. “There are so many voices calling out to us from the world, and we need to discern what God is calling us to do in response.”

Derrick says that although all people are uniquely created by God, they are not all called to do the same ministry. Antiphony will provide a context for open discussion and exploration of God’s calling.

Colleen Burroughs, executive vice president of Passport, Inc., a national non-profit with a student missions

Class Notes: News from Partner Schools Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond. The seminary has added L. Julianna M. Claassens of South Africa to the faculty as professor of Old Testament. Claassens previously served as professor of religious studies at St. Norbert College in Green Bay, Wisc.

The seminary will host its Seminary Encounter conferences for potential students Oct. 8 and Nov. 12. For more information, contact Rob Fox, director of admissions, at 888345-BTSR or rfox@btsr.edu.

Elizabeth Schussler Fiorenza, professor of Scripture and interpretation at Harvard Divinity School, will present the Solon B. Cousins Lectures Oct. 2122. Lectures are free and open to the public. For more infor-

mation, call (804) 355-8135.

Campbell University Divinity School. Approximately 260 pastors and their guests attended the 2004 Campbell University’s Board of Ministers and Pastors’ School, during which Ronald S. Cava and G. Jeffery Roberts were named Reavis Scholars for 2004 and James C. Fowler received the 2004 Distinguished Service Award from the divinity school.

Cava is pastor of First Baptist Church, Clinton, N.C., and Roberts is pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Raleigh, N.C. Fowler is missions coordinator for CBF of North Carolina.

The school has announced that a Campbell Divinity School Scholarship has been established by former N.C. Sen.

focus, and Julie Pennington-Russell, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Waco, Texas, will be the featured guest speakers. Recording artist Ken Medema will also lead in worship.

“An antiphonal choir sings two parts in a musical conversation, and that is the idea behind the meeting,” says David Burroughs, president and CEO of Passport, Inc. “We will be singing God’s song, listening for God’s voice and having antiphonal conversation about what we are hearing.

“Our goal is to expose this college generation to the multiple ministry and mission possibilities that are before them and assist them as they chart their course for Christian service,” he says.

The cost starts at $150 and includes conference fees, a New Year’s Eve party and lodging. Online registration is available. f!

For more information, go to www.antiphonyonline.org.

By contributing writer Ashley Grizzle, Atlanta Robert Warren in memory of his wife, Ann Sparks Warren.

Central Baptist Theological Seminary. Mercy and Truth Medical Missions recently purchased an unused dormitory from Central Seminary for the purpose of expanding their services and ministries. The Carpenter-Wells Dormitory, which was built in the late 1940s, became available because of the changing needs in student housing at the seminary.

Mike Graves, professor of homiletics and worship at Central, has been awarded one of six fellowships at the College of Preachers in Washington, D.C. Graves will reside at the college Nov. 1-22 and work on a book about Sabbath and its power to renew preaching.

The seminary will host its annual Mission Day, Oct. 19,

featuring Reid Trulson as the guest lecturer. Trulson is area director for Europe and the Middle East and a team leader for Global Mission areas for the International Ministries department of the American Baptist Churches USA. Cost is $30, and $10 for students. For more information or to register, contact Shirley Wallace at (913) 371-5313, ext. 111, or swallace@cbts.edu.

McAfee School of Theology, Mercer University. The school will hold a luncheon for alumni and friends at the Westin Hotel adjacent to the Atlanta Airport at noon, Nov. 15. Reservation deadline is Nov. 8. For more information or to make a reservation, contact Sharon Lim at (678) 547-6420 or lim_s@mercer.edu.

www.thefellowship.info OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2004

GLOBAL MISSIONS & MINISTRIES

Student Conference to Focus on Vocational Calling, Global Missions

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GLOBAL MISSIONS & MINISTRIES 12

2004-2005 Resources Together…Being the Presence of Christ Offering for Global Missions Resources, 2004-2005 The following promotional resources explain the Offering appeal as well as the CBF Global Missions strategy. These resources are flexible and can be tailored to fit your church’s unique approach to missions promotion. To order, call The CBF Store at (888) 801-4223.

Offering for Global Missions Contribution Envelopes Include these envelopes in a mailing or have them available in the church pew racks. 0420P001 “How To” Guide for Promoting the Offering for Global Missions An easy-to-use resource for teachers and group leaders. This comprehensive guide includes descriptions of promotional resources, explains a variety of methods for connecting with CBF Global Missions — everything needed to prepare for and promote the Offering for Global Missions. 0420P006 Together . . . Being the Presence of Christ Bulletin Insert Four uplifting stories about diverse, ongoing missions projects make the Offering for Global Missions come alive. With compelling quotes from partners in different areas of ministry (and several regions of the world), this insert illustrates what we can accomplish together. 0420P002 Together . . . Being the Presence of Christ Promotional Poster Color portraits representing three continents grace this bold, 18”x 22” poster that proclaims I Cor. 3:9, “For we are God’s fellow workers,” and announces the theme “Together Being the Presence of Christ.” This resource is two-sided, one for English and one for Spanish speakers. Order one for every bulletin board. 0420P003

C O O P E R AT I V E B A P T I S T F E L L O W S H I P

www.thefellowship.info

MissionConnect Bulletin Insert This insert provides a glimpse into CBF’s missions to Internationals— refugees and other immigrants seeking better, safer lives in the world’s urban centers. CBF values of listening, equipping and partnering are demonstrated in the details of stories from field personnel.

It includes direct-contact information for personnel featured in MissionConnect. 042P004 MissionConnect Poster A complement to the Offering for Global Missions poster, this poster is designed to highlight MissionConnect, the spring emphasis of the Offering for Global Missions. 0420P012 Offering for Global Missions Bank The coolest offering bank ever!

With one touch, this pre-folded item becomes a small, 14-sided world globe with a slot for coins on top and a place for a child’s name on the bottom. Text of the 2004-05 theme and goal grace the oceans. 0420P013 “And Jesus Said...” Year-Long Guide to Global Missions Praying A small but beautiful volume that guides the reader to participate in the very heart of Global Missions: Prayer.

It is designed almanac style, with descriptive, week-by-week prayer needs from missions teams, color field photos, a monthly scripture meditation, and more. Order soon— this is an annual favorite. 042P005

When a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship leader speaks in a church, it’s more than a presentation. It’s a connection. Fellowship speakers make a point to dialogue with church members and leaders rather than talk to them.

With more than 100 speakers, the Fellowship’s Speakers Bureau can help churches needing pulpit supply, a speaker during a special offering emphasis, someone to provide first-hand accounts of missions work around the world for church missions groups of all ages, or leaders who can address the nature of the Fellowship. We can match speakers to meet your needs.

Visit www.thefellowship.info and click on the Speakers Bureau for a calendar and listing of speakers. Call (800) 352-8741, x 1630 or email speakersbureau@the fellowship.info to schedule a speaker for your church.

When a Fellowship speaker visits your church, it’s a connection not a presentation.

Partners in Prayer Prayer Calendars Every day of the year, church members can remember in prayer CBF personnel and their children on their birthdays.

0420P008 Offering for Global Missions E-Update E-mailed monthly, each issue provides timely, innovative ideas and links to resources to help you promote the Offering. You will also find prayer calendars to assist your church in remembering to support CBF Global Missions field personnel in prayer as well as opportunities for volunteer missions service. To subscribe, e-mail your request to OGM@thefellow ship.info or call (770) 220-1630.

Offering for Global Missions Promotional Video Order this video to encourage giving to the Offering for Global Missions. In addition, you will have the opportunity to preview three exciting CBF Global Missions multimedia resources: The Balinese People (updated video), The Romany People of Europe (newly released video) and Walking Alongside Internationals DVD. Free. 0420V001 The Balinese People This updated video provides a look into the life, culture, and religion of the people of Bali, Indonesia, as well as describing some of the ongoing CBF efforts to minister to the Balinese. The video includes some of the work of the Bali Appropriate Technology Institute, (BATI) founded by Rus Alit and his wife, Made. $4.95 0420V002 Coming in September, The Balinese People will be available as part of a NEW DVD which will include a virtual prayer walk among the Balinese, photos from Bali, and other features.

The Romany People of Europe This new video tells the stories of current CBF Global Missions ministries among the Romany people in Hungary and Romania. Learn about the Ruth School for Romany children in Bucharest and the Gypsy Smith School for Romany church planters and evangelists.

Also, hear from Ralph and Tammy Stocks, field personnel ministering among the Romany. $4.95 0420V003 Walking Alongside Internationals DVD This new multimedia tool introduces you and your congregation to immigrants, refugees and international students living in metropolitan areas around the world and who have found friends and family in CBF field personnel. From their stories, you may gain a better understanding of the journey that each makes and the need for people of faith to reach out to them. You will be challenged to look within your community to find people with whom you could walk alongside being the presence of Christ. This tool is a “must have” when promoting the spring missions emphasis, MissionConnect. 0420DV001

To order, call (888) 801-4223 or visit www.thefellowship.info (follow the link to The CBF Store). www.thefellowship.info OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2004

GLOBAL MISSIONS & MINISTRIES

CBF Speakers Bureau Guide Included in this guide are brief biographies and photos of 40 Fellowship personnel available for preaching or informal presentations about the mission and ministries of CBF Global Missions. A must-have for pastors and mission leaders.

042P007

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GLOBAL MISSIONS & MINISTRIES 14

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4 Easy Ways to Order Now 1. Call today 1-888-801-4CBF (9am - 5pm EST, M-F) 2. Fax your order to 770-280-0060 3. Return order form by mail to: CBF, P.O. Box 932953, Atlanta, GA 31193-2953 4. Order online at www.the fellowship.info and follow the link to the CBF Store

Name __________________________________________ Phone __________________________________________ Address ________________________________________ City ____________________________________________ State ___________________ Zip ____________________ E-mail ___________________________________________ 0420X006-H

C O O P E R AT I V E B A P T I S T F E L L O W S H I P

www.thefellowship.info

BUILDING COMMUNITY

Fellowship Adds Congregational Life Staffer to Better Serve Churches

Lisa M. Jones photo

R I C K B E N N E T T K N O W S firsthand that there is little time for church staff members to research and find resources adequate to their congregations. In his new role as Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s associate coordinator for faith formation, Bennett will proactively assist congregations in acquiring resources that meet their needs.

“My primary focus at CBF will be resource discovery and development,” says Bennett, who comes from First Baptist Church in Orangeburg, S.C., where he served as pastoral educator since February 2001.

Rick Bennett (left) joins Coordinator for “Fellowship churches Congregational Life Bo Prosser at the are searching for General Assembly. resources consistent with the movement and, in some cases, resources that bear a unique Fellowship mark.

That’s my primary purpose for answering this call.”

Bennett will also lead in the development of networks and events that will enhance Fellowship life, like the recently launched Spiritual Formation Network (SFN).

“My work will include the development of the evolving

Fellowship, Partners Provide Ministry Resources to Congregations THE FELLOWSHIP and its partners provide the following congregational resources:

Web/e-Resources Fellowship biFriday e-newsletter.

Subscribe to CBF’s e-newsletter distributed every other Friday to get the latest news and resources. To subscribe, go to www.thefellowship.info/News/ Signup.icm. (free) When Religion Becomes Evil Study Guide. A downloadable study guide for Charles Kimball’s book, When Religion Becomes Evil, is available at www.the fellowship.info at Church

Life/Congregational Life/When Religion Becomes Evil Study Guide. (free) It’s Time: an Urgent Call to Christian Mission Study Guide.

This online study guide accompanies Daniel Vestal’s book, It’s Time: an Urgent Call to Christian Mission. A downloadable PDF version of the 12-page guide is available at www.thefellowship.info at Church Life/Congregational Life/It’s Time Study Guide. (free) Copies of Vestal’s book are available from The CBF Store at www.thefellowship.info or at (888) 801-4223. (free, plus

SFN. That work includes management of the partnership between CBF and Upper Room and the development of events for spiritual formation.”

As a member of the Congregational Life Team, Bennett will also work with Bo Prosser, coordinator for Congregational Life, in the development of the Missional Church Initiative. “The missional church will be the perspective for everything we develop,” Bennett says. “This will include a network of consultants that will help Fellowship churches be faithful with purpose and intentionality.”

“Rick is deeply committed to the work of the local church and brings completeness to our initiative area that will enhance our work with partners, congregations, and individuals,” Prosser says. Ordained in 1995 and a graduate of Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, Bennett’s ministry has included churches in North Carolina and Virginia.

Bennett says his primary objective is to communicate the Fellowship’s desire and ability to connect resources and congregations: “We want to serve as your first resource for ministry – please call on us.” f!

For more information about Fellowship faith formation, contact Bennett at (770) 220-1605 or rbennett@thefellowship.info.

By staff writer Jo Upton

shipping) Leading Churches into 21st Century Missions: 13 Lessons in Acts. CBF Global Missions, AlabamaCBF, CBF of Georgia and CBF of South Carolina are partnering with the Baptist Center for Ethics to offer a new undated, online Sunday school curriculum that explores how local churches can be the center of 21st century global missions. A free sample lesson is available at www.ethics daily.com. (prices vary) Congregational Life Companions in Christ Series. A Spanish-language edition of the 28-week spiritual formation resource aimed at strengthening the Christian walk is available.

Other series pieces include Companions in Christ: The Way of Forgiveness, Companions in Christ: The Way of Blessedness, and Companions in Christ: The Way of Grace. (prices vary) Order from The CBF Store at (888) 801-4223 or www.thefellow ship.info.

The Crafts of Preaching and Writing Baptist History Booklet. The Baptist History and Heritage Society published this piece by Walter B. Shurden and Wayne Flynt. To order, call (800) 966-2278 or e-mail Pam Durso at pdurso@tnbaptist.org. ($5)

www.thefellowship.info OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2004

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W H I L E 4 - Y E A R - O L D M A U R I C I O R O J A S plays in the sand with some marbles, his mother, Rosalía, piles loose stones in a corner of the patio outside her two-bedroom house. Inside, three masons and more than 10 volunteers put finishing touches on the new house Rosalía has always dreamed of.

In Santa Cruz, Bolivia, the dreams of Rosalía and five other families were built in 10 days with 40 volunteers from First Baptist Church, Asheville, N.C. For 10 days this summer, these volunteers from the church choir participated in a project called “Sing and Build.” They built houses by day and gave concerts by night.

“It really made an impression on Bolivian nationals that a team from America would come and work that hard to make their dreams come true,” says John Derrick, CBF associate coordinator for missions training, who serves as liaison for the Fellowship and Habitat for Humanity International partnership.

For Rosalía, it was a dream she never thought would be realized. “We had lost all hope of having our own house because Forty volunteers from First Baptist Church, we didn’t even have a lot Asheville, N.C., ‘Sing and Build’ as they help to build a house on. We construct six houses in Bolivia. were wandering aimlessly from house to house,” Rosalía says.

The last “house” her seven-member family lived in was an 860-square-foot shack without any internal walls.

The Sing and Build project was a perfect match for FBC, Asheville, which has a long history with Habitat and a large, 19-choir music ministry. “We felt like the project picked us,” says Clark Sorrells, the church’s music minister and trip leader.

The church financially underwrote part of the trip, with fund raising and personal contributions covering the remaining cost. Participants ranged in age from 16 to 67 and started rehearsing as a choir two months prior, practicing previously-performed songs and learning five songs in Spanish.

Sorrells says his group found music to be a powerful missions tool. “Singing connected us emotionally and spiritually with the folks in a profound way,” he recalls.

Rebecca Hix, Habitat’s associate director for U.S. church relations, agrees. “Every time they opened up their mouths C O O P E R AT I V E B A P T I S T F E L L O W S H I P

www.thefellowship.info

Manuel Mancuello photos/Habitat for Humanity South America

GLOBAL MISSIONS & MINISTRIES 16

North Carolina Church Pilots Project with Habitat for Humanity in Bolivia

Rosalía Rojas stands outside her new home with her sons Mauricio and Carlos Alberto.

“

The word got spread far to sing, God’s love was proclaimed and wide. This team that powerfully,” she says. went to one place to build Because of this a few houses inspired missions team’s size — most Habitat groups are a whole country. less than 15 people — — R E B E C C A H I X , H A B I TAT F O R the team received H U M A N I T Y A S S O C I AT E national television covDIRECTOR OF U.S. erage in Bolivia.

C H U R C H R E L AT I O N S “The word got spread far and wide. This team that went to one place to build a few houses inspired a whole country,” Hix says.

Sing and Build was a pilot project of the partnership between Habitat and the Fellowship. Habitat provides volunteer opportunities worldwide that intersect with CBF Global Missions priorities, and “CBF gives [Habitat] access to a powerful group of people that want to be faithful to God,” Hix explains.

Sorrells hopes other churches will do Sing and Build projects. FBC, Asheville, is already looking at a 2006 trip with their youth choir.

“Our folks are beating the doors down to do another one,” Sorrells says. f!

”

Contact Timothy Wood at (800) 782-2451 or twood@thefellow ship.info for updates on future Sing and Build volunteer opportunities.

By Carla Wynn, CBF Communications intern, and Manuel Mancuello, Communication Coordinator, Habitat for Humanity South America

AS TWO OF THE SEMINARIES

related to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship celebrate

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

CBF Partner Schools Fill a Niche in Providing Theological Education five-and 10-year anniversaries this year, they are experiencing the same problem – they can’t

17

graduate enough students to fill the demand.

“All of our graduates have jobs unless they have chosen not to work,” says Scott Hudgins, director of admissions and student services at The Divinity School at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. “We can’t fill all of the requests that we have for graduates.”

“As large as Texas is, 11 percent of our churches are always looking for staff,” says René Maciel, assistant dean at George W. Truett Seminary at Baylor University.

Wake Forest celebrated its fifth anniversary as part of Fall Convocation activities in September. Truett celebrated its 10th anniversary earlier this year with a special Founders’ Day program that focused specifically on George W. Truett, the school’s namesake.

Both Truett and Wake Forest have found their own niche in the way they provide theological education.

“Our main emphasis is training students for ministry,” Maciel says. “The Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry are the only degrees we offer. Our students are primarily Baptists going into Baptist work.”

With a student population that is 65 percent Baptist on a large university campus where a seminarian could be living next door to a Muslim or a Jew, Wake Forest Divinity School is intentionally ecumenical in its approach, Hudgins says.

“Students will come here and encounter Moravians, Episcopalians and others, and see an alternative view of ministry. This kind of interaction helps Baptist students discover the depths of our denomination. It energizes them to the larger church, and shows them that we’re not in this by ourselves. This ecumenism has been our biggest point of contention too. Some say that we’re not Baptist enough.”

Truett had 353 students enrolled last spring, graduated 65 M.Div. students and two D.Min. students last year, and anticipated a fall enrollment of 400, mostly full-time resident students. Graduates are finding work as pastors, chaplains, associates, youth ministers, and in missions, Maciel says. Graduates are serving in a number of states and around the world.

Truett was founded, Maciel says, because “people were looking for a different way to study. They were looking for

a place that offered a strong sense of community and toleration, that offered seminar style classrooms instead of large lecture halls.”

Truett is funded by the Baptist General Convention of Texas and the Fellowship, but the majority of funding comes from Baylor University, Maciel Our challenge is to get explains. churches to help young As Wake Forest began its sixth year, people to identify their own it welcomed 32 new sense of calling and M.Div. students to encourage them to think bring total enrollment about seminary. We’ve got to 94. Seventeen graduated in May, to help congregations do and like the 47 stuthat or we’re not going to dents in the two graduating classes have leadership. before them, they are —SCOTT HUDGINS, WAKE FOREST serving all kinds of churches all over the DIVINITY SCHOOL DIRECTOR southeast. Seventy OF ADMISSIONS AND percent are serving STUDENT SERVICES Baptist churches; the rest are scattered among other Protestant denominations. One is a campus minister at Carson-Newman College. Several are in chaplain residencies at Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem.

Hudgins thinks CBF’s model for working with seminaries is “innovative and exciting.”

“From the very beginning CBF recognized that there are multiple ways to do theological education,” Hudgins says. “To have Baptist houses, divinity schools and seminaries working together is energizing and miraculous.” f!

“

”

By contributing writer Sue H. Poss, Greenville, S.C.

www.thefellowship.info OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2004

BUILDING COMMUNITY

Fellowship-endorsed Chaplain Concludes 28-year Army Career C O O P E R AT I V E B A P T I S T F E L L O W S H I P -endorsed

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Chaplain Hal Roller recently retired as commandant of the U.S. Army Chaplain Center and School after a 28-year career that included numerous assignments and military honors such as the Bronze Star and Purple Heart.

“He has distinguished himself in every assignment in his military career,” says George Pickle, CBF associate coordinator for chaplaincy and pastoral counseling.

Roller, 58, became commandant in March 2002, overseeing operations of Army chaplain education at Fort Hal Roller Jackson, S.C. “It was like being the president of a seminary,” Roller says.

“Everything the soldiers do, everywhere the soldiers go, chaplains are part of them. If troops jump out of an airplane, there’s a chaplain jumping out of the airplane,” says Roller, who has completed 26 jumps.

As commandant, he worked with “those called to the profession of chaplaincy.” Roller particularly enjoyed meeting with other CBF-endorsed chaplains.

Roller felt led to military chaplaincy during his service as an infantry officer in Vietnam. Upon his return, he received a master of divinity from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1974.

Fellowship Churches to Celebrate Pastoral Care Week in October PASTORAL CARE WEEK is a

national emphasis Oct. 25-31 for the celebration of chaplains and pastoral counselors and their ministry. With the theme “Imagining Peace,” the event allows Fellowship churches to focus on their congregation’s ministry through CBF-endorsed chaplains and pastoral counselors.

“It is a wonderful opportunity to invite a chaplain or pastoral counselor to share their ministry with your church,” George Pickle says.

C O O P E R AT I V E B A P T I S T F E L L O W S H I P

For more information, go to www.pastoralcareweek.org.

The Fellowship recently endorsed the following chaplains and pastoral counselors, bringing the total count to 430: HOSPICE CHAPLAINS: Ken P. Bentley, New Beacon Hospice, Birmingham, Ala.; Rick Ruano, Vitas Healthcare Corporation of Florida, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. HOSPITAL CHAPLAINS: Susan J. Arnold, Baptist Hospital Northeast, La Grange, Ky.; J. Randy Brookshire, part-time, Self Regional Hospital,

www.thefellowship.info

Roller was a pastor in Florida when he applied for active duty as a chaplain.

His military chaplaincy began in 1976 and has included assignments in Germany, Korea and Belgium.

He was battalion chaplain in the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky. During this assignment, he commuted to Vanderbilt University where he earned a doctorate of ministry in 1982.

One of Roller’s most defining assignments was brigade chaplain of the 82nd Airborne at Fort Bragg, N.C. “There was a camaraderie there,” he recalls. “Getting to know soldiers in a personal way and providing pastoral care enhanced my sense of calling.”

Roller and his wife, Sherry, have been married for 31 years. “Sherry and I have seen the calling as a team effort,” Roller says.

Roller and his wife retired in Overland Park, Kan., to be near their two children and four grandchildren. He plans to do interim pastoral work, teaching and pastoral counseling. f!

For more information about CBF chaplaincy and pastoral counseling, contact George Pickle at (770) 220-1617 or gpickle@thefellowship.info. Information is also available at www.thefellowship.info at Church Life/Chaplaincy & Pastoral Counselors.

By Carla Wynn, CBF Communications intern

Greenwood, S.C.; Maya de Guzman Cantimbuhan, CPE resident, Jefferson Regional Medical Center, Pine Bluff, Ark.; James A. Cook, Rowan Regional Medical Center, Salisbury, N.C.; Patricia F. Heys, CPE resident, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite, Atlanta, Ga.; Jonathan P.S. Ivy, part-time, DCH Health System, Department of Veterans Affairs, Tuscaloosa, Ala.; Susan A. Lanford, Baptist Health, Little Rock, Ark.; Wayne A. Sibley, Rapides Regional Medical Center, Alexandria, La.; Stephen W. Sweatt, Medical Center East, Inc., pastoral counselor, United Methodist Pastoral Care and Counseling,

Birmingham, Ala. MILITARY CHAPLAINS: O. Wayne Boyd, U.S. Army, Fort Worth, Texas; Doug E. Brown, U.S. Army National Guard, Fayetteville, N.C.; Robert H. Williams, U.S. Army, Fort Hood, Texas.

PASTORAL COUNSELORS: Scott W. McBroom, Lowcountry Pastoral Counseling Center, Charleston, S.C. PROFESSIONAL: James L. Close II, pastoral counselor, Louisville, Ky. PUBLIC SAFETY CHAPLAINS: William “Pete” S. Parks, volunteer chaplain, College of William and Mary Police Department, Williamsburg, Va.

V O L U N T E E R M I S S I O N S for the Fellowship is restructuring in a new place with a new face. Timothy Wood is the new manager for the volunteer missions program, which is now based out of the CBF Global Missions office in Dallas.

“Timothy brings a history of experience and a global worldview that will be a great asset to us as he leads volunteer missions,” says Tom Ogburn, the Fellowship’s associate coordinator for volunteer and partnership missions.

Wood comes to the Fellowship from the Frontiers Texas-Oklahoma Regional Office where he served as Timothy Wood assistant director. Frontiers is a nondenominational church planting agency which focuses on North Africa and parts of Asia.

Wood recruited and led volunteer teams in India and the Middle East, as well as developed training and follow-up resources for volunteers.

In part, Wood came to the Fellowship because of its philosophy of ministry. “The Fellowship is a place where lots of different people with lots of different faces can call home,” he says. “All those people have the best common glue – Jesus Christ.”

Matching the needs of Global Missions field personnel with volunteers, whether individuals, churches or other groups, will be Wood’s primary responsibility. “We want to make that whole process as seamless as possible,” he says.

With the restructuring, Wood hopes to expand both the number of opportunities and the number of individuals and churches going on teams. “There’s really nothing that can match or replace going on a short-term project to really build the life of Christ into a person or church,” he says.

Three tools are now available to facilitate the matching process: a volunteer missions handbook, a special volunteer section under the Global Missions section of the Fellowship’s Web site, and a volunteer missions e-newsletter.

The Web site allows those interested in volunteering to view postings, print out a volunteer information form and even buy insurance, all online. Also available is much of the content of the volunteer missions handbook.

The volunteer handbook is “packed with information designed to get volunteers from their house to the opportunity,” Wood says. “It includes everything from a packing list to shot information and cultural information.” f!

A hard copy of the handbook is available to churches and

CBF, San Antonio Church Host ‘We Love Missions’ Conference WE LOVE MISSIONS , a national missions conference hosted by CBF Global Missions and Trinity Baptist Church of San Antonio, Texas, will be Oct. 21-24 in San Antonio.

The multicultural, bilingual conference will feature seminars, hands-on missions work, exhibits and insights from “some of the most creative individuals and organizations involved in missions today,” according to Tom Ogburn, the Fellowship associate coordinator for volunteer and partnership missions and one of the event’s organizers.

The featured speaker is Philip Jenkins, author of The Next Christendom. Dove Award-winning recording artist Bruce Greer will perform and help lead in worship. The conference will include the following speakers:

• Barbara Baldridge, CBF Global Missions cocoordinator • Jerry Dailey, pastor of Macedonia Baptist Church, San Antonio, and president of the African-American Fellowship • Debbie Ferrier, missions pastor, Trinity Baptist Church, San Antonio

• Alcides Guajardo, president of Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas • Ken Hall, president of Buckner Baptist Benevolences and the Baptist General Convention of Texas (BGCT) • Patty Lane, BGCT consultant and author of A Beginner’s Guide to Crossing Cultures • Paul Montacute, Baptist World Alliance • Albert Reyes, president of Baptist University of the Americas • Bill Tinsley, World ConneX • Daniel Vestal, CBF coordinator • Charles Wade, BGCT executive director The conference will feature a bilingual service on Friday night and simultaneous Spanish and English services on Saturday morning. The event will include an experiential component, where “we move from conversation of missions to the streets of San Antonio,” Ogburn says.

To register online or for more information, call (800) 782-2451 or go to www.welove missions.org.

By Carla Wynn, CBF Communications intern

team leaders by contacting Wood at (972) 242-5977 or twood@thefellowship.info. Anyone can subscribe to the e-newsletter by the same method.

To find information on the Web site, go to www.thefellow ship.info and Global Missions/Volunteer Missions.

By contributing writer Alison Wingfield, Dallas www.thefellowship.info OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2004

GLOBAL MISSIONS & MINISTRIES

CBF Volunteer Missions Creates Handbook, Makes Global Missions Staff Changes

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AS WE JOURNEY

The Common Good T H E W O R D S J U M P E D O F F T H E PA G E

of my NRSV Bible, “To each is given the manifesta-

tion of the Spirit for THE COMMON GOOD” (1 Corinthians 12:7).

20

The gifts and blessings from the Sovereign Lord are not just for our private enjoyment and surely not for personal pride.

Rather, they are offered for the health and welfare of others.

It seems to me that there is a good bit of spiritual pride in all of us. We delight in displaying our intellectual sophistication and recounting our experiences, and are offended when we are not appropriately recognized. How easy it is for us to actually feel like the Pharisee, “Thank you God that I’m not a fundamentalist, a Republican, a Democrat, a charismatic.” How difficult it is for us to see that whatever insight, Daniel Vestal aptitude or talent we might have is not so that we compare and “… an increasing number compete but that we contribute to THE of Baptist Christians COMMON GOOD. are discovering how Recently, the 9/11 much we can accomplish Commission brought a unanimous (yes, when we are passionate unanimous) report to about THE COMMON Congress on terrorism.

They made bold recomGOOD.” mendations for sweeping — C B F C O O R D I N AT O R changes, and, for the first time D A N I E L V E S TA L in a long time, a group of government leaders worked together without regard to peer pressure. They put aside personal agendas and partisan politics because they were committed to THE COMMON GOOD. In all parts of our culture (business, education, religion), there are institutions in serious trouble because leaders and followers are driven more by tradition, ego or ideology rather than a desire for THE COMMON GOOD. The crisis in church after church is related to false expectations. Some are imposed on the leaders by the congregation and some are self-imposed by leaders. The expectations have to do with what I call “a consumer ethos,” the overwhelming characteristic of which is selfishness.

The expectation is that the church be a vendor of religious goods and services for felt needs rather than a missional fellowship that serves and sacrifices for C O O P E R AT I V E B A P T I S T F E L L O W S H I P

www.thefellowship.info

THE COMMON GOOD. Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is flourishing because of widespread commitment from so many to our shared ministry. Many different people bring their influence and energy, their perspectives and calling, their time and resources to “serving Christians as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.” From church planting to chaplaincy, from leadership development to social justice, from spiritual formation to global missions, an increasing number of Baptist Christians are discovering how much we can accomplish when we are passionate about THE COMMON GOOD. At this year’s General Assembly, I spoke about the word “convergence” (coming together) within the Baptist family, the Christian family and the human family. The incarnation itself is a convergence of the material and the spiritual, the heavenly and the earthly, the eternal and the temporal, the human and the divine. We are living in a world where there is an increasing distance and division between rich and poor and between left and right. In such a world, it is time for new convergences.

With all my heart, I believe that God invites us to participate in the glorious mission of reconciliation and re-creation. I also believe that the salvation found in Jesus Christ is not only personal but corporate. Jesus lived, died and was resurrected to reconcile us to God, to one another and to creation itself. There is in the very heart of the Triune God a longing for THE COMMON GOOD. All of this is not an appeal for blind loyalty, “group think” or dull sameness. Neither is it a devaluing of individual responsibility, personal rewards or independent initiative. But striving for THE COMMON GOOD is a matter of motive, spirit and attitude. It is a mind-set patterned after the One who “… knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing and wrapped a towel around his waist.

After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet …” (John 13:3-5 NIV).

This is our pattern for life. f!

By CBF Coordinator Daniel Vestal

FELLOWSHIP FARE

Fellowship Roundup News from CBF’s states, regions and national offices FLORIDA C O O P E R AT I V E Baptist Fellowship

of Florida’s Fall Luncheon will be Nov. 9 at Hendricks Avenue Baptist Church, Jacksonville. Anita and Jack Snell, CBF Global Missions associate coordinators for missions teams, will share an update on their work.

Summer missions volunteers at the Ruth School in Bucharest, Romania, will share about their experiences. To make reservations, contact the CBF Florida office at (888) 241-2233 or contact@floridacbf.org.

GEORGIA Suzanne Powell is the new senior assistant for administration and finance and Nancy Copeland is the new assistant for communication and resources for CBF of Georgia. Alan Mitchell will be assisting with reference and referral. Mitchell has accepted the pastorate of Community Baptist Church in Milledgeville.

Wieuca Road Baptist Church collected $11,976.55 for Touching Taliaferro with Love rural poverty initiative.

Baptist Women in Ministry of Georgia is planning a Fall Retreat for Oct. 29-30 at Simpsonwood Conference and Retreat Center in Norcross, Ga. For more information or to register, contact Devita Parnell at dparnell@cbfga.org or (478) 742-1191, ext. 28.

The Fall Convocation of CBF of Georgia will be Nov. 14-15 at Christian Fellowship Baptist Church in College Park. Carolyn Gordon of Central Seminary in Kansas City will be the featured speaker.

MISSOURI T H E M I S S O U R I Baptist Historical

Society will meet Oct. 16 in Liberty.

This event will feature two presentations by Bill Leonard, dean and professor of church history at Wake Forest Divinity School, WinstonSalem, N.C., based on his newest book Baptist Ways: A History. For more information, contact Angela Stiffler with the William Jewell College Partee Center at (816) 4157620 or at stifflera@williamjewell.edu.

A Fellowship Gathering has been scheduled for Oct. 26 in Kansas City.

For details, visit www.cbfmo.org.

The Samuel Project Retreat will be Nov. 19-20 at the Windermere Baptist Conference Center. This event is designed for young people exploring a call to full-time Christian ministry and church leaders desiring to nurture a climate where teens and young adults can discern God’s call to full-time ministry. Made possible through a grant from the Lilly Endowment, this is the first Samuel Project event offered west of the Mississippi. For more information, contact Mike Lassiter at youth@2bcliberty.org or Melissa Hatfield at melissa@fbcjc.org. The retreat is sponsored by the CBFMO Samuel Project Task Group and Central Seminary.

NATIONAL F E L L O W S H I P E M P L O Y E E S marking 10-year employment anniversaries include: Bill Bruster, (7/94); Wanda Hyde, (7/94); and Judy Gooch, (8/94).

SOUTH CAROLINA T H E F A L L C O N V O C AT I O N for CBF

of South Carolina will be Nov. 8, at First Baptist Church, Greenville, S.C. Featured speakers will be Duke McCall, Foy Valentine, Carolyn Weatherford Crumpler and Jimmy

Coming Attractions Oct. 16 Stagg-Tolbert Forum on Biblical Studies Broadmoor Baptist Church, Baton Rouge, La. Sponsor: CBF of Louisiana Presenter: Malcom Tolbert Contact: (225) 927-5454, office@broadmoorbaptist.com Nov. 11-13 Bridging Faith and Health: the Role of the Church Candler School of Theology, Emory University, Atlanta Sponsor: Emory School of Public Health and School of Nursing Contact: Office of Church Ministries Education, OCME@emory.edu For a complete schedule of events, go to www.thefellowship.info/InsideCBF/Calendar.

Allen. Registration begins at 2 p.m.

The program runs from 2:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Register online at www.cbfofsc.org.

Augusta Heights Baptist Church in Greenville, S.C., has offered a house it had previously rented to tenants as a community crisis center.

“The need for food and other help is very evident in the community around our church,” says Pat Kirkbride, minister of education and outreach. “There is no cooperative food distribution center or crisis center in this area of the city. So we realized that the need as well as the opportunity to serve in this community was indeed great.”

CBF Organizes Hurricane Relief Efforts I N T H E WA K E of Hurricane Charley in August, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship personnel organized relief efforts in south central Florida. www.thefellowship.info OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2004

21

FELLOWSHIP FARE

Fellowship relief efforts have concentrated in the rural, inland counties of DeSoto and Hardee, where rural and migrant populations were particularly hard hit.

“The people who live in trailers – there’s little left of where they live,” said CBF of Georgia Missions Coordinator Jimmy Lewis from Punta Gorda, Fla., where Charley came ashore.

The key staging points for the Fellowship’s initial relief efforts were First Baptist Church, Fort Myers; South

Lance Wallace photo

22

Mobile home parks in central and southwest Florida were hard hit by Hurricane Charley.

Venice Baptist Church in Venice and College Park Baptist Church in Orlando.

“We’re going to be here for the long term,” Lewis said.

Initially, the Fellowship designated $10,000 for the relief effort.

Contributions should be marked for “Hurricane Charley relief” and sent to CBF, P.O. Box 101699, Atlanta, Ga., 30392.

Timothy Wood, CBF volunteer missions program manager, is the main contact for all relief efforts. He can be reached at (800) 782-2451.

By Lance Wallace and Bob Perkins, CBF Communications

CBF West Launches Youth Missions Camp

Vol. 14, No. 5 CBF COORDINATOR • Daniel Vestal EDITOR • Ben McDade MANAGING EDITOR • Lisa M. Jones PHONE • (770) 220-1600 FAX • (770) 220-1685

C B F W E S T M A R K E D a major mile-

stone as it launched JOURNEYS, its first annual week of youth missions camp.

Located in Arroyo Grande, along the central coast of California, 65 youth, adults and staff attended.

Partnering with the Four Square Church of Santa Maria, Calif., and their Adopt-A-Block program, youth prepared a parcel of land for a community garden. Youth also helped prepare a special room for neighborhood teens to hang out.

Youth mixed fun with hard work in projects at the campgrounds where JOURNEYS was based, tearing down an old cabin and then cutting it up into manageable pieces, and painting the railing and fencing for an outdoor meeting area.

Other daily activities included personal devotional times, morning celebrations that included the band Sonburn, Bible studies and relationship-building events.

JOURNEYS included a beach party

Almost 70 youth, adults and staff attend the first JOURNEYS youth missions camp sponsored by CBF West.

E-MAIL • fellowship@thefellowship.info WEB SITE • www.thefellowship.info

fellowship! is published bimonthly

by The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Inc., 3001 Mercer University Dr., Atlanta, GA 30341-4115.

Periodicals postage paid at Atlanta, GA, and additional mailing offices.

USPS #015-625 POSTMASTER:

Send address changes to “fellowship!”

Newsletter, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, P.O. Box 450329, Atlanta, GA 31145-0329

and dinner and a costume ball. The last evening of camp, Sonburn, a four-person band from Phoenix, performed a special concert.

Joy Yee, senior pastor of New Covenant Baptist Church in San Francisco, led youth in interactive worship experiences.

Dates for the next JOURNEYS camp will be July 11-16, 2005. Youth from all states are welcome, with ages ranging from those entering 7th grade through recent high school graduates. f!

For more information, including camp brochures, contact Mari Licking, c/o First Baptist Church, 8133 W Cactus Rd, Peoria, AZ 85381 at (623) 979-3239 or JOURNEYSCAMP@msn.com.

Courtesy of CBF West

Special report by Mari Licking, JOURNEYS Camp Director, and Joy Yee, CBF moderatorelect

C O O P E R AT I V E B A P T I S T F E L L O W S H I P

www.thefellowship.info

Cooperative Baptist Fellowship 2005 General Assembly June 30-July 2, 2005 • Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center, Grapevine, Texas

GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Official Hotel Reservation Form Reserve quickly at www.thefellowship.info/Church Life/GA2005/hotel.icm

Being the Presence of Christ in All the World (John 3:16) Arrival/Departure Arrival Date:

Departure Date:

Arrival Time, if known: If dates are not listed, you will be assigned the official convention housing dates at the top of this form. (June 30-July 2, 2005)

Room Type ■ River Walk & Hill Country Tower Single/Double/Triple/Quad — $99.00 plus tax

(Current room tax 12%)

■ Lone Star Tower Single/Double/Triple/Quad — $124.00 plus tax ■ Single (1 person, 1 bed)

■ Double (2 people, 1 bed)

■ Double/Double (2 people, 2 beds) ■ Triple (3 people, 2 beds) ■ Quad (4 people, 2 beds) Special Requests: ■ Smoking ■ Disabled ■ Rollaway

(additional $25)

■ Atrium view ■ Exterior/Texas view ■ Other ___________________________________ Unfortunately, view requests and special requests are not guaranteed.

Attendee Information Send confirmation to: (one confirmation per room) First Name:

Company/Church/Organization: Mailing Address:

Day Phone:

State:

Zip:

Fax:

Email: Sharing Room with:

Deposit Information Please charge my first night’s deposit to my credit card (check one): ■ American Express ■ MasterCard

1. MAIL Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center Group Reservations Department 1501 Gaylord Trail Grapevine, TX 76051 It is suggested that you include a check, money order or a credit card number to hold the reservation. The deposit should equal one night’s room rate plus tax for each room reserved. Deposit is refundable if cancellation is made 72 hours prior to arrival. If using a credit card please include type of credit card, cardholder’s name, credit card number and expiration date.

2. PHONE: Call Gaylord Hotels Reservations at (866) 7827897 or (817) 778-2000 and reference "Cooperative Baptist" as your convention group. You will be asked for a credit card number to hold the reservation. Your credit card will not be charged at that time, but all cancellations must be made 72 hours in advance of arrival date to avoid deposit charges.

3. Go ONLINE to www.thefellowship.info/Church Life/ GA2005/hotel.icm and make reservations on-line with the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center. Be sure to enter the CBF Group Code “A-CBF06” on your reservation and follow the instructions. You will be asked for a credit card number to hold your reservation. Your credit card will be charged at that time for one night’s room and tax. This deposit is refundable if cancellation is made 72 hours prior to arrival.

If you need help making your reservations please call S. Stewart & Associates for assistance at (770) 619-9671.

Last Name:

City:

COMPLETE HOTEL RESERVATION FORM and return no later than May 25, 2005. Three ways to reserve your room:

■ Diners Club ■ Visa

■ Discover Card ■ Check

Credit Card Number: Expiration Date: Cardholder’s Name: Cardholder’s Signature (Required): Guests wishing to avoid an early checkout fee should advise the hotel at or before checkin of any change in planned length of stay.

Reservations received after the cut off date will be accepted on a space available basis and at the hotel’s prevailing room rate.

Helpful Reminders 1. Reservation forms must be RECEIVED by the Gaylord Texan no later than May 25, 2005. Reservations received after the cut-off date will be accepted on a space available basis and at the Hotel’s prevailing room rate 2. Sharing a room: Please submit only one reservation per room requested listing all occupants in the room. A confirmation listing each occupant will be mailed to you (the primary occupant) if reservation is completed by mail or phone. Please print your confirmation if completed online.

3. All reservations holding more than 5 rooms will be required to forward a non-refundable, one nights deposit for each room held by April 1, 2005. If not, all rooms held will be released back to the CBF Housing Room Block for re-sale.

4. Changes/Cancellations: Please call The Gaylord Texan for all changes/cancellations and reference your confirmation number. When canceling a reservation, please be sure to ask for a cancellation number and keep a record of the number.

5. RATES DO NOT INCLUDE the current room tax of 12%.

www.thefellowship.info OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2004

23

GLOBAL MISSIONS & MINISTRIES

North Carolina Congregation Makes Journey to Texas for KidsHeart

Craig Bird photo

24

T H E F O L K S AT F I R S T B A P T I S T Church of Kannapolis, N.C., know God’s promise to “be in the midst” requires only two or three gathered together. That truth was confirmed repeatedly during their recent missions trip to the Rio Grande Valley of Texas where they participated in KidsHeart 2004 (see cover article).

“Two years ago when the Fellowship launched the rural poverty initiative, several of us started talking about going to Texas and working in the Rio Grande Valley,” explains David Olive, executive vice president of Pfeiffer University in Charlotte, as he shuttles between helping make Vacation Bible School arts and craft projects and framing a house.

“But we only had four people commit to go, and we thought that was too small a group to undertake it.”

But when reports from the first KidsHeart project came out last summer, Olive noticed that small groups could be matched with other small groups and First Baptist Denford Oxendine installs a window in a house his conChurch, struction crew helped remodel as part of KidsHeart Kannapolis, was 2004. Oxendine suffered the only reported injury among headed the 320 volunteers when scaffolding collapsed. He dutifully kept the injured arm in a sling but, with time running Southwest. out the final day, he discarded it so he could work again.

They wound

up with 11 volunteers and became the only non-Texas church in the mix. Working with the team from Royal Lane Baptist Church in Dallas, they held a VBS at Belen Baptist Church and, 30 miles away, helped in the construction of two homes.

“The benefits have been tremendous,” Olive says. “The families who are getting the houses are so appreciative and the kids are so easy to love.”

Olive also notes the practical lessons, from getting to know fellow believers from Dallas to seeing that “most of the people live in houses that are smaller than most of our church member’s garages” to experiencing a “little bit what it’s like to be a minority – to be where more people speak Spanish than English.”

The church has an English as a Second Language class for the growing population of Spanish-speaking immigrants in North Carolina and recently started a Hispanic Sunday school class.

The Kannapolis crew was varied. The age span ran from 5-year-old Will Olive to Denford and Bess Oxendine, who have been married 48 years.

Church member Trula Overcash splits her time between Florida and North Carolina.

“We leave Florida in the summer to escape some of the heat but it’s been over 100 degrees every day at these construction sites,” she says. “But when we found out about this trip, I knew I had to come. I built houses for 15 years for a living, so I felt I could build some to help other people.”

The team’s last day in the Valley they presented the keys to the two houses to the local families, along with welcome mats and Bibles. “God loves us and that is why we are here,” Overcash told the families. “And God loves you, and we want you to know that. What we’ve done is nothing compared to what God does for all of us.” f!

By contributing writer Craig Bird, San Antonio 0410P005

P. O. Box 450329 Atlanta, GA 31145-0329 Address Service Requested