For students, summer may seem like simply the time between semesters when productivity takes a backseat to leisure. But this summer busloads of Texas teenagers “redeemed the time.”

During the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention’s three student camps, 152 teenagers registered professions of faith, 81 accepted calls to the ministry and 67 made other life-defining decisions. Nearly 1,500 students attended one of the three weeks offered during two weeks of M3 Camp and one week at Palacios.

M3 Camps—the three M’s represent moment, mission and ministry—are organized by the SBTC’s student evangelism area, with one week at Highland Lakes Camp in Spicewood and one week at Camp Zephyr in Sandia. Youth Week at Palacios, a camp organized by the language ministries department, aims to provide a quality camp experience to Hispanic churches, though it draws a few non-Hispanic church groups as well.

M3 Camps
The larger of the two camps, M3 saw 127 salvation decisions. Garrett Wagoner, student collegiate associate with the SBTC, said M3 intentionally and clearly presents the gospel to unconverted students and challenges those who have already trusted Christ to live lives of gospel mission and ministry.

Some credited an ongoing prayer effort during both weeks of M3 with the results that followed.

Students and adults took turns offering continuous prayer for all those at the camp, including the camp staff, by name. Wagoner said students who struggled with issues such as suicidal thoughts and depression sought intercessory prayer in the tent as well. During week one and week two, students also read the entire New Testament aloud, ending in what Wagoner described as a moving moment as students read the final verses in Revelation.

Jeremy McNair, youth pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Fort Worth, agreed that the prayer room played an important role for the 30 students from Cornerstone. He said through the week, his students had been praying for one student in their group who had been raised in Africa as a Muslim. He had recently come to the United States to live with family but had not shown interest in knowing or following Christ.

“When he came to our church, he was very respectful of our beliefs but firm in the fact that he wasn’t necessarily interested in receiving Christ,” McNair said.

But during one of the camp worship services, the young man got up and ran out from the gathering. McNair quickly caught up with him and listened to what he had to say.

“He said, ‘I know that Jesus is real.’ I said, ‘He is real.’ He said, ‘I know that Jesus is here.’ I said, ‘Absolutely,’” McNair recounted.

When the student still had reservations about abandoning his Muslim beliefs, McNair explained that Jesus said he is the “only way” to salvation and told him that one cannot serve both Christ and Allah.

“He renounced Allah and gave up his Muslim background in favor of serving Christ,” McNair said. “It was amazing to see the youth group who had been praying for him and modeling the Christian lifestyle rally around him. It was a fantastic end to the camp.”

Wagoner said on the last night of the second week of camp, camp pastor Ryan Fontenot challenged the students to go share the gospel with students who had not yet come to faith.

“I saw 13-year-olds who were broken over their friends who did not know Jesus, which is only something the Spirit of God can do,” Wagoner said. “Seventeen students gave their lives to Christ [that night].”

“What makes these camps different is it’s not just fun and games where we stick a message in there,” Wagoner added, explaining that the focus of the camp is challenging students in their walk with Christ.

M3, which drew groups from 25 churches this year, has grown in popularity among Texas student ministries, and organizers already plan to add a third camp week for next summer.

Youth Week at Palacios
More than 300 students attended Youth Week, held at the Palacios by the Sea Baptist Encampment in Palacios. The new location—a change from the camp’s home of six years at Alto Frio Baptist Encampment in Leakey—allowed for many Houston-area churches to attend and helped double the camp’s attendance from last year. During Youth Week, students heard a clear gospel message and the call to live a life that honors the Lord, said Jesse Contreras, SBTC language ministries associate.

Contreras said many of the students who came to this year’s camp struggled with weighty burdens and strongholds and found a respite in being at the camp, away from their everyday environments.

“Some of the students came to our camp struggling with suicidal tendencies, broken homes, violence, divorce, pornography, peer pressure and lack of purpose,” Contreras said. “Some of these students were able to receive prayer, encouragement and face-to-face time, but, overall, instruction from God’s Word concerning the issues they were struggling with.”

This year 25 students accepted Christ as savior, 15 rededicated their lives to Christ, one accepted a call to ministry, seven spoke with counselors about assurance of salvation and five made other decisions.

Contreras said Youth Week plays a vital role in the spiritual lives of the teenagers who attend, providing them a distraction-free environment in which they can seriously contemplate what it looks like to follow Christ wholly.

“I think that camps are a milestone to many of our students’ lives,” Contreras said. “Decisions to follow Christ for the rest of their lives are made at these camps, and many have sensed a calling of God on their lives to serve him in various ministries. We hope that the students will realize that they are not invincible but that they are fearfully and wonderfully made by our Creator.”

To find more information about attending an M3 camp or Youth Week camp in 2014, contact Wagoner or Contreras at the SBTC office, 817-552-2500, or watch for camp registration announcements at sbtexas.com later this year.

The Public Religion Research Institute has released a survey which indicates that younger religious folks are more “progressive” (liberal) than their elders. This appears to be more than the normal differences between old and young; the trend is going against Christian conservatives.

That trend is important but maybe less significant than it sounds. That doesn’t mean that liberal denominations are flourishing or will in the future. Believing nearly nothing (or almost everything) is no more appealing to younger church attenders than to their parents, although I suspect that churchless people who call themselves both progressive and religious will say nice things about liberal mainline denominations they know nothing of. It probably does mean that fewer people will gravitate toward Bible-believing churches without having been born again. To the degree that we can trust surveys like this we can observe that people who self-identify as “religious” aren’t necessarily bought in to the practice of any religion. They are the undecideds, the “nones,” who are spiritual but not in fellowship with any religious body.

Fun as such data is (and it is to me), the rub comes at the point of meaning. What should we do as a result of these facts? Those who disdain conservatives are quick to suggest that we should become less conservative if we want to attract a future support base. It’s hard to describe how condescending that suggestion sounds. Are the positions taken by more liberal people simply marketing postures? I don’t think they are but they seem to think that our beliefs are very adaptable to the needs of the moment. What would a person who is biblically convicted that abortion ends a precious human life do to attract someone who does not into his biblical fellowship? Attracting numbers or even maintaining a critical mass for the survival of your organization cannot be held more precious than the principles that justify its existence. One columnist has suggested that conservatives will need to learn to “sing harmony.” Another says that conservatives will need to “dampen” their identification with conservative causes. That’s silly. Conservatives will not prevail by becoming liberals.

Conservative Christians, as well those less so, must be careful to avoid pointless and divisive diversions. But don’t mistake the advice of counselors who don’t wish us well, or even pundits more focused on winning than on being right; they are not agreeing with us about what is pointless and divisive. The issues that separate us from more liberal Americans flow from the nature of Scripture. Sure, some of those are political social issues as well but nothing in Scripture and nothing we say is more offensive than the message that Jesus lives and he is lord. Until we’re willing to compromise that word, we’ll not really win the affection of this generation or any to come. 

FORT WORTH—Churches have long been considered safe havens for worship but, with 433 people killed on church property since 1999, they have become more dangerous than schools.

Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, knows such violence firsthand. A shooter entered a youth service in 1999, killed seven and wounded seven others.

Wedgewood hosted a “Sheepdog Seminar” this spring, providing training for 350 church representatives to prevent and respond to violent attacks. Seminar leaders referred to attendees as “sheepdogs” or protectors of their churches.

“I think there’s something that God’s people can do that we’re not doing,” Jimmy Meeks, seminar leader and a police veteran of more than 30 years, said of the need for church preparedness.

Lt. Col. Dave Grossman (retired), another speaker whose book “On Killing” was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, said denial of the occurrence of violence is a major enemy of the church.

“The church has sat and done nothing while our kids are desensitized,” Grossman said, proffering that violent video games and movies are encouraging a generation of youth to use force against society’s most vulnerable.

“They’re gonna seek victims that can’t fight back in places that guns aren’t allowed,” often at churches and schools, Grossman said.

Meeks encouraged churches to mobilize safety teams, training and licensing them to carry and use guns to the extent of the law. No church members should join solely for the purpose of hurting those who might seem to be “bad guys,” Meeks said.

“It’s not about how to hurt the shooter but to protect the sheep,” he noted.

The seminar was not limited to gun violence. Attorney Greg Love of MinistrySafe said churches need to be on their guard against sexual predators.

“It starts with understanding it’s even possible,” Love said. He advised churches to conduct thorough background checks, educate their members and encourage them to report problems, even if reputations are at stake.

“We expect and desire that kids be safer at our program than any other,” Love said of the church.

Churches also must rely on the power of God to fight against violence, Meeks said, encouraging prayer, fasting, wisdom, courage and love.

“It will take more than a good man with a gun to stop a bad man with a gun,” Meeks said. “We need more than guns — we’re gonna need the power of God.”

Seminar attendees heard from families who have lost members in church shootings and viewed the film “Faith Under Fire,” based on the 1980 shooting at First Baptist Church in Dangerfield, Texas.

Each of the 13 speakers during the May 6-7 seminar noted the importance of churches preparing for violence physically, mentally or spiritually.

Host pastor Al Meredith said churches must tailor ministry to the times in which we live.

“I don’t know if it’s the best of times or the worst of times,” Meredith said, “but it’s the only times we’ve got.”

HOUSTON—Joe Dufner and Doyle Bosley leave little room for excuses.

Among the 115 disaster relief volunteers from across the country who entertained, fed, walked, cradled, changed and loved on 136 preschool children during the 2013 Southern Baptist Convention June 9-12 in Houston, Dufner and Bosley had the best reasons not to be there.

Like their peers, their days began before convention staff and messengers arrived and ended after everyone had left for the night. But nothing would deter Texans Dufner and Bosley from their commitments.

Not long hours, demanding schedules or stinky diapers. Not even cancer.

The men and their fellow DR yellow shirts, many of them long past child-rearing years, worked at the convention as a facet of their childcare ministry, usually done in the field following disasters. Crying toddlers are no strangers to these folks.

“As long as I can and as long as they’ll have me I’ll be here,” said Bosley, 69, a leukemia patient who’s fought his disease since 2006.

When Dufner, 72, wasn’t working security at the convention’s childcare unit, he was driving to meet with doctors at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center (MDA) in preparation for surgery at the end of that week. He was diagnosed last year with Merkle cell carcinoma, a rare and aggressive form of skin cancer. Surgery in October treated the initial outbreak but a recent follow-up exam found the cancer had spread to his lymph nodes.

The news was disconcerting, he said, not because the cancer had returned but the upcoming pre-operative appointments conflicted with the commitments he and his wife Betty had made for the convention.

“My priority was that I made a commitment to take care of children and I’m going to take care of the children,” he said.

The bi-vocational pastor from Forest Branch Baptist Church in Livingston said the setback would not keep him from fulfilling his obligation. With the SBC annual meeting and the world-renowned cancer treatment center both in downtown Houston, Dufner figured he would simply split his time between the two facilities.

After a long appointment at MDA the Tuesday of the convention, Dufner returned to the George R. Brown (GRB) Convention Center to finish his shift with the children. The next morning he shared his story with the TEXAN before leaving for another appointment. At the close of his shift at the GRB that evening, Dufner and his wife became the new directors of the STBC DR childcare unit following the retirement of Carma Hackett.

Two days later, Dufner had surgery to remove cancerous lymph nodes.

Bosley’s ongoing battle with cancer has taken its toll on his kidneys and a severe case of plantar fasciitis keeps him off his feet and on a motorized scooter. He can’t chase the older children (childcare at the convention and during disaster responses is for children up to 5 years old) but he can sit at a table and play with a toddler.

It was one such encounter that made a significant impression on an 18-month-old child and his foster parents.

“I was supposed to pull the trailer and be free. I didn’t retire to work childcare,” Bosley said of his trip to Lubbock in 2009 for the SBTC annual meeting.

But finding little else to do with his free time, Bosley sat through the childcare training session (He was already certified in other areas of DR ministry). Dufner was also in attendance that day—just another observer passing the time and hoping to be useful.

When it came time to get to work both men reported to Hackett, donning aprons and a willing spirit.

When Hackett stopped by Bosley’s room to check on the children she spotted an 18-month-old boy standing at a table playing with a car. Looking past the toddler she saw Bosley, on the floor, rolling a second car, keeping the boy happily engaged.

It was an unremarkable situation except for the fact that the child had been severely abused as a baby and men terrified him. In the short time they had been together the toddler developed a trust in Bosley alone. He would not leave when called to eat supper, instead demanding Bosley help him with his meal.

The child’s foster parents (who later adopted him) tearfully recalled to Hackett that each day of the convention their son could not wait to get to the meeting to see “Papa Do.”

Dufner became “Papa Joe” to his charges and the name stuck.

The men have served at disaster sites, SBTC conventions, and SBC conventions. At the annual meetings they delight in seeing children they cared for the previous year.

Dufner said, “When you go somewhere and a child runs up to you and calls you by name, you know you’ve succeeded.”

Dufner and Bosley are not the only volunteers facing difficult health issues. Most volunteers sport a “crown of glory” (Proverbs 16:31) and endure health troubles that come with age. Bosley’s wife Patricia can no longer work directly with the children so she switched to registration, allowing her to continue volunteering and being nearby.

Dufner said he would like to see younger adults volunteer with SBTC DR childcare. Participation from a younger generation would only strengthen the ranks of the ministry. On average, about 10 percent of the DR volunteers respond when called, necessitating a pool of at least 200 trained workers to staff a convention or disaster.

SBTC DR childcare only has a pool of 56 trained volunteers from which to draw when needs arise.

“We have people say ‘I’m too old. I can’t walk. I can’t witness,’” Dufner said.

But speaking as the soon-to-be childcare director, he added, “In disaster relief there is a job for anybody. There’s always a place for anyone who wants to serve.”