GRAPEVINE-Jim Richards told the Executive Board during its summer meeting Aug. 3 the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention is poised to make a difference among Baptists as it passes the five-year mark.

Richards, SBTC Executive Director, said the convention in its first five years had reached its goal of becoming a viable ministry in the state of Texas and is entering a new epoch in its life.

Richards unfurled several goals for the SBTC in the coming years. First, he said the convention should demonstrate that we are the best at missions strategy in the state of Texas because of church planting among under-evangelized groups and developing in the DNA of those churches a passion for planting other churches and commitment to the SBTC’s core values.

Second, Richards voiced the hope that we will be the provider of choice for services to local churches. In our time, as it has changed, local churches resource all types of ministries to meet the needs of their congregation. Unfortunately, we’re seeing a trend away from doctrinal loyalty, defined, If it works, we’re going to use it regardless of where the source has its doctrinal position. We want to not only say that we can provide doctrinal resources, but attractive, positive and innovative resources for local churches.

Third, Richards said, the SBTC should be a good partner to the Southern Baptist Convention through the Cooperative Program, continuing on our pace to the end game which is 55 percent (of CP Missions giving) going on to the Southern Baptist Convention. Once the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention reaches that point then we will have accomplished what we set out to do. And our statement is that we?re doing more with less in Texas without Texas having to do with less.

Summing up, Richards said the SBTC can be a leader among Baptists. Up to this point we’ve been a fledgling convention, a breakaway convention, a renegade convention. We?ve had a lot of adjectives attached to us to describe us. But the next adjective that?s going to be used is a leading convention.

Richards said the convention’s commitment to missions and evangelism, cooperation through the CP Missions funding channel, theological agreement without uniformity, and minimal organizational bureaucracy, can be a model for other Baptist entities.

DALLAS?More than 60 percent of Texans live in apartment units, and 96 percent of those tenants are unsaved. That means great potential for ministry exists for churches, said Barbara Oden, multi-housing church planting consultant with SBTC.

Oden, who has worked with creating and structuring multi-housing ministries for the past 20 years in such cities as New York City, Las Vegas, Houston, and Dallas, is also a former apartment manager, so she knows the rules of the game well.

“I think if we’re going to reach our cities in America with the message of Christ, then we have to get into these communities,” Oden said. “Apartment complexes are growing and growing every day.”

The Texas Apartment Association (TAA), for example, represents apartments in 26 cities providing housing for more than 3.8 million Texans in 1.5 million rental-housing units.

“Texas has been very proactive in getting the word out and so there has been more conferencing (in multi-housing ministry) here than in any other state,” Oden said.

Multi-housing ministry provides a sense of community in very close proximities, Oden noted. These ministries offer classes that meet the needs and wants of the tenants such as after-school tutoring for children, crafts, cooking, art, Bible studies, Spanish as a Second Language (SSL), English as a Second Language (ESL) and more.

“The apartment managers want a tool that will keep the people from moving out, so they are looking for something to offer the residents,” Oden said.

The multi-housing ministry provides that with classes, free of charge, run by local church volunteers. “We are looking to create classes and activities necessary to be able to build relationships with people who are not the least bit interested in God,” Oden said. “Multi-housing ministries in Texas congregations are reaching people who would never darken the door of our churches.”

Oden said it is not unusual for church services to take place in the apartment complex after the volunteers have established a meeting place and time. “They are winning people to Christ, baptizing them, starting Bible studies, having regular services there,” Oden said.

One pastor and his wife, Harry and Nilda Impini of Mission Lochwood/La Mission in Dallas, spend each week at a local apartment complex ministering to children and their families.

During the school year, Nilda oversees two kindergarten classes a week fo

The SBTC and International Mission Board have extended the “Beirut and Beyond” partnership through 2008, and the SBTC has expanded its role to facilitate work directly with Lebanese Baptists as well as IMB workers, said Terry Coy, SBTC ethnic church planting strategist.

Meanwhile, members of Southern Baptists of Texas Convention churches in Pflugerville and El Paso are back from a mission trip to Beirut?the first such trip since an SBTC contingent visited the Middle Eastern city last winter to evaluate an expanded missions partnership there.

The Arab Baptist Seminary sends pastors into other Arab countries, Coy said.

Rex Tillman, pastor of Exciting Immanuel Baptist Church in El Paso, and Mike Northen, associate pastor of First Baptist Church, Pflugerville, were among those who went to share the gospel in the predominately Muslim country.

Lebanon is the only country in the region with relative freedom of religion. Beirut‘s cosmopolitan atmosphere allows for a relatively free exchange of ideas and the city has a sizable culturally Christian populace.

Northen was among 14 people from Pflugerville who went to Beirut.

“We met with a group of leaders who pretty much said, ‘Ya’ll come help us know how to reach Arab Muslims,’ ” he said, relating it in Texas dialect.

“Our pastor (Steve Washburn) determined that we as a group were going to go. We met with these leaders and discovered there is a lot of things we need to do, but we need to do them with an understanding of their culture. (We need to do it) the way they would do it, not the way we would,” Northen said.

Among the things that needed to be done to reach people in Beirut were literature distribut

DALLAS–Stephen Baldwin had just told a packed auditorium of students gathered at The Criswell College for the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention’s Youth Evangelism Conference (YEC) about his conversion to Christ following the 9/11 attacks.

In the hallway adjacent to the stage, a purple-haired teen, probably 12 or 13 with eyes full of tears, bent Baldwin’s ears for several minutes before the veteran actor whisked him downstairs to the hospitality room to do more serious spiritual business.

After a 15-20 minute conversation, Baldwin gathered several others around and prayed with the student

“Good luck, man,” the teen told Baldwin as he stood to leave.

“I don’t need luck, dude,” Baldwin said grinning. “I’ve got Jesus.”

That Baldwin has Jesus is curious to some.

He’s the youngest of the Baldwin acting clan–with Alec, Billy and Daniel–and a veteran of more than 60 movies (“The Usual Suspects,” “8 Seconds,”) and television shows “The Young Riders” (1989-92), ‘Celebrity Mole” and “Fear Factor.”

His conversion and his work in producing an “extreme sports” DVD to reach kids in the skateboarding and biking culture has been reported in places like USA Today, the New York Times, salon.com, Fox News Channel and CNN. Lately he’s been a regular at Christian rock festivals and similar evangelical events–even advocating that Christians turn out for the November elections.

Baldwin said he’s not concerned with potential negative consequences of being a vocal Christian in the entertainment business.

“In my position, I just don’t think I’m supposed to keep my faith to myself,” Baldwin told the TEXAN.

“I’m just doing what the Lord’s telling me to do. You know, if the Lord’s not telling anybody else (in Hollywood) to (talk publicly about their faith), well, then God bless ’em. But I don’t think that’s the case. I think there are a lot of people who don’t put their faith before everything else, you know. And that’s a big problem. I’m just doing what the Lord’s calling me to do. Period.”

Baldwin told the 2,000 YEC students and sponsors how he came to Christ through the witness of his wife, Kennya, a believer of 10 years, and the 9/11 tragedy, which he called an “impossible” event.

” ‘If the impossible is now possible,’ ” he recalled thinking, ” ‘anything’s possible. And if anything’s possible–my wife’s a born-again Christian, I’ve been reading the Bible and I’ve been praying to the Lord to like, tell me what this is all about–then Jesus could come back tomorrow.’ That’s what I thought. ‘Well if Jesus could come back tomorrow, I’ve got a lot of work to do, because I ain’t the guy that I want to be when Jesus comes back.’ “

Baldwin said he made a covenant with God and was baptized at the evangelical church he and his wife attend in upstate New York.

His YEC appearance included a plug for the DVD he co-produced with the Luis Palau Evangelistic Association, which he directed and hosts–aimed at the extreme or “core” sports culture of skateboarding and BMX biking, an $8 billion a year consumer segment with its own counterculture music and often hard-edged lifestyle.

The “Livin’ It” DVD was released this spring, the brainchild of Baldwin and Luis Palau’s son, Kevin; they conceived the idea last year after Baldwin attended a Palau organization event in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., featuring leading skateboarders who shared their Christian beliefs with youth attracted to the “core sports” subculture.

The 40-minute documentary (www.livinit.org) features extreme sports action, footage of engaging street outreach and stories from 11 top “core sports” athletes.

The Palau organization planned 10,000 copies for a 24-month distribution; in five months 40,000 DVDs have sold, Baldwin said.

A Long Island, N.Y., native, Baldwin, 38, told the YEC students the nanny he and his wife hired for their first child was Brazilian–like his wife–and was a devout Christian. She told the couple she believed God sent her to them to help lead them to Jesus; she even predicted they would become Christians and have a ministry, Baldwin said.

After Baldwin moved his family to upstate New York, Kennya began attending Bible studies and became a Christian. By September 2001, her faithful witness had moved Baldwin close to conversion, he said.

Baldwin told the TEXAN he sees how God, years earlier, was orchestrating his conversion. Raised a nominal Roman Catholic who didn’t attend church much after about age 10, Baldwin said his experience in his mid-20s in a 12-step recovery program awakened his senses to God, but it took no concrete form.

“In reality, there’s just no comparison to the experience I’m having now,” he said.

Baldwin said Jesus Christ has given him peace and has helped him be a better father and husband. “And I couldn’t do that unless I had some understanding of what God’s will was for me. And again, I only have that understanding because I know what it’s based on, which is the Bible, and I read it every day.”

Baldwin said since his conversion he’s had numerous discussions with his brothers about his experience. Baldwin’s brother Alec made news in 2000 after he said he’d leave the country if George W. Bush, a professed Christian, won the election.

“The Lord, very early in my walk, was very clear and just said, ‘I’ll deal with them.’ He said, ‘I need Stephen to focus on Stephen’s relationship with Jesus Christ.’ So I’ve just been walking my walk and I’ve been really busy with everything the Lord’s had me doing.”

Baldwin said Alec, for instance, has questioned him lately about his speaking schedule, which includes many Christian venues. They talk frequently and their kids play together, he said.

“Now with this election coming up, you know, people know that I’m a Christian, so people he interacts with are like, ‘Oh, so, what’s your brother doing?’ And what he explained to me most recently is—probably two to three times a week he walks down the street in New York and probably folks who are visiting New York City from the South and this and that … will go, “Oh, my, Alec Baldwin.’ And he’ll go, ‘Oh, how are you. Nice to meet you.’ And they’ll go, ‘Please tell your brother Stephen, God bless him for everything he’s doing for Jesus.’”

“He said he can’t get away from it,” Baldwin said, laughing.

“I just talk to people and I let them know that I act on what I believe, and that belief is based on the Bible. And I’ll tell anybody, ‘If you’re reading the Bible every day, and you share in that same understanding, then we can talk. And if you don’t agree with me, then you’re not agreeing with me based on your understanding.’ That’s what I like to tell people.”

During his YEC appearance, Baldwin lamented the number of Christians who didn’t vote in the 2000 presidential election and said the upcoming vote might be the most important in the nation’s history.

He stopped short of an endorsement, but said he would vote “for the guy who I think has the most faith.”

Baldwin said plans are being made to organize a “Livin’ It” bus tour for 2005 that would bring some of the top Christian “core sports” athletes to malls in cities across the country.

CORPUS CHRISTI?A Southern Baptist church made news when a large majority of its members voted to remove from its rolls 165 people who oppose the church’s pastoral leadership and direction.

Members of Gardendale Baptist Church in Corpus Christi voted during a business meeting July 18 to “confirm or deny” that Micah Davidson “is the God-called pastor for Gardendale and is leading us in God’s direction or not.”

Members confirmed Davidson by about 750-165, said John Gilbert, the church’s administrative pastor. Davidson promised to leave immediately if voted down; if not, those voting against his leadership would be removed, a letter sent prior to the vote stated.

Davidson, who was on an international mission and not available for comment, was the unanimously choice as pastor when he came in 2002, but had gotten criticism from some members because the church quit holding traditional Sunday night services and reserved congregational decision making to major issues, the Caller-Times newspaper reported.

In a telephone interview with the TEXAN, Gilbert said the Caller-Times report of July 20 was accurate. Gilbert told the newspaper opposition in the church was hindering its ministry and that members could not vote on every decision.

“It was a very difficult day for us,” Gilbert told the TEXAN, adding that Davidson displayed “utmost integrity in walking through that.”

Comment here from dissenting member ?

He said the church hopes for restoration for members who were removed, which would involve attending a membership class and signing a membership covenant. Gilbert told the TEXAN he’d just spent two hours with one member who voted against Davidson and was rethinking his decision.

“I really anticipate a good number will be back,” Gilbert said.

A copy of the covenant faxed to the TEXAN by Gilbert notes four requirements:

?”I confess that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior.”

?”I have been baptized by immersion.”

?”I have completed the new member class.”

?”I am committed to abide by the membership covenant.”

Members also covenant to regularly attend services; participate in small group Bible studies; serve in a God-called ministry; be consistent tithers; model a Christ-centered life; reach out to the unchurched, and protect the congregation’s unity.

Gilbert said the entire staff was ready to resign if members fired Davidson.

In a letter from Davidson to members that announced that a vote would be taken on his leadership, he wrote that since January more than 800 adults have joined “Home Teams,” 200 are serving in a church ministry and more than 100 have signed up for mission trips. He also noted that 45 people were baptized on March 7 and 43 salvation decisions were recorded during the church’s Vacation Bible School.

Davidson wrote, “gossip, rumors, slander and secret meetings must stop.”