Articles from January 2018

Texas Baptists was recently recognized by the North American Mission Board (NAMB) with an evangelism award for the “Highest Number of Baptisms” for the 2016 calendar year. Texas Baptists churches had a recorded 28,765 baptisms, making this the second year in a row for Texas Baptists to receive this national award.

La reciente ola de escándalos de asalto sexual debe ser un llamado a despertar al país con respecto a una verdad largamente ignorada: Nuestra obsesión sexual está fuera de control. Mientras la sociedad busca una explicación a esta tragedia, un culpable se esconde en las sombras. Ese culpable es la pornografía.

La pornografía se ha generalizado de una manera escandalosa, sobre todo en vista de la mayor disponibilidad de teléfonos celulares inteligentes y un casi ilimitado acceso a internet. Estudios recientes muestran que casi el 79 % de los varones jóvenes y el 34% de la población femenil joven de entre los 18 y 30 años de edad consumen pornografía de manera consistente. En el 2015, un solo sitio pornográfico de internet reportó una audiencia televisiva de 4.3 billones de horas; es decir, el equivalente a 500,000 años enfrente de la pantalla. Cuando el profesor Simon Lajeunesse intentó estudiar el impacto y alcance de la pornografía entre la gente joven hace unos años, se vio forzado a limitar su investigación debido al hecho de que no podía encontrar hombres de edad universitaria que no estuvieran ya consumiéndola. De hecho, no existía un grupo de prueba.

By Caleb Seibert

The recent wave of sexual assault scandals should be a wake-up call to America of a long-overlooked truth: Our sexual obsession has spun out of control. As society searches for an explanation to this tragedy, one culprit lurks in the shadows. That culprit is pornography.

Pornography has become shockingly pervasive, and even more so with the rise of the smartphone and nearly limitless Internet access. A recent survey found that 79 percent of men and 34 percent of women between the ages of 18 and 30 view pornography on at least a monthly basis. A single pornographic website in 2015 reported 4.3 billion hours of viewership - the equivalent of 500,000 years of screen-staring. When Professor Simon Lajeunesse of the University of Montreal began to study porn’s impact on young men, he was hindered in his research because he could not find any men in their twenties who were not already looking at it.

The story began about three years ago. I was a sophomore at the University of North Texas (UNT), in my rookie semester as an RA in the "artsy dorm" and I had decided to apply for GoNow Missions. I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do or who I wanted to serve. I applied for a position in Jamaica because a friend of mine went the previous winter break and highly recommended it. However, I quickly discovered that the timing was not going to work out for that trip. So I ended up going to Discovery Day with absolutely no idea what position I was wanting or being called to.

Me encanta la historia de Rut. Me gusta tanto que en las últimas semanas he enseñado dos veces sobre esta libro corto de la Biblia; de modo que a la tercera va la vencida, quiero compartir algunas cosas sobre cómo Rut nos inspira a ser firmes al seguir a Dios sin importar lo que nos depare el 2018.

Back in 1848, at the first Baptist state convention in Texas, a handful of words were used to describe the primary purpose of the group gathered. Later on, in 1886, those same words were incorporated into the Baptist General Convention of Texas constitution at its formation.

“BENEVOLENT WORK” is an old phrase referring to what churches do to help people meet their basic needs. Benevolence takes many forms, but a story told by Jesus provides many churches the foundation for their efforts.