Faith

“Unity is valuable because it is so rare,” said David Dykes, pastor of Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler, Texas, during his Monday night sermon at the 2018 Texas Baptists Family Gathering.

Jason Paredes, lead pastor of Fielder Church in Arlington, Texas, presented the sermon during the last evening worship session of 2018 Texas Baptists Family Gathering.

During Tuesday morning’s worship service of the 2018 Texas Baptists Family Gathering, Ralph West, pastor and founder of The Church Without Walls, in Houston, Texas, preached a powerful message on oneness.

For 18 years, parents and the local church play in a match against culture to influence the worldview of growing individuals. Where culture would speak of religion as “sin management” and God as solely focused on our happiness, the church needs to be cultivating grace-based faith that can be articulated “beneath the level of students’ feelings.”

After 23 years in ministry, I find churches are still struggling to win. It seems that many are in rebuilding decades attempting to reach the evasive younger generation. For 40 years we have been chasing the young families in our communities. Yet, when we do the data mining in our records, we find that we are still not getting them en masse.

The Scott & White College of Nursing at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor has announced the launch of an Adult - Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner (AG-ACNP) program, which will equip graduates with the skills to practice in high pressure areas within acute care settings.

“Back then, my main focus was not excelling,” she said. “But this time is different. Houston Baptist University has really changed that for me. I want the ‘gold medal’ this time.”

At Baylor’s Truett Seminary, student Lauren McCoy is able to unite her passion for business with her call to ministry, creating a unique opportunity to make a difference in the church.

At Hardin-Simmons University, the college years are not only a time for academic learning, but also a time for spiritual growth.

Grief is a unique, personal natural, normal, necessary reaction to death and loss. Death is a universal part of the human experience. Grieving is the internal reaction following a loss while mourning is an outward or public expression of thoughts and feelings regarding a loss.  

Unfortunately, in our very broken world, we all too frequently hear about tragedies at home and abroad. These events can have significant impact on the mental and emotional health and well-being of those involved and, in fact, have an impact on you and me.

Nominating Committees everywhere are starting to work hard to fill church positions. I have worked on both the local and state level in trying to uncover and discover and recover people to serve on various boards, agencies, teams, committees, and teaching slots. I have seen the good and bad side of filling positions. Often, we cherry pick the best people for certain positions and scramble to just fill the page. 

Nine years ago, Darrel and Kim Auvenshine helped found Southside City Church in Fort Worth. The congregation primarily serves the impoverished, the down and out and the homeless.

When a single mom and her children first arrive at Homes for Families, a program of STCH Ministries, desperation often accompanies them. Dreams of a better life have worn thin from years of crises, trauma and anxiety.

We all must do them and have them done to us. In church life, this tends to be tricky and messy. 

Richard Baggett and his wife, Miwes, were on an RV vacation in summer 2016, standing on Deception Pass Bridge in Washington and marveling at the view. Then Baggett’s phone rang.

Any student who has benefitted from a scholarship knows what an enormous difference it can make. When that scholarship funds a mission trip, the outcome can be eternal.

An oxymoron is the combination of contradictory words that have been linked together.