Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 24, 1994 TAG: 9409270022
SECTION: RELIGION PAGE: C4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: FROM STAFF & WIRE REPORTS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
An open house for pastors, mental-health professionals and others who might refer patients to the New Hope Christian Therapy Program at Lewis-Gale Psychiatric Center is scheduled Tuesday.
The Salem center will be open for tours and introductions to staff members between 9 and 11 a.m. and 2 and 4 p.m.
Dunn to speak
BLACKSBURG - James M. Dunn, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs in Washington will speak at Glade Baptist Church, 1600 Glade Road, today and Sunday.
Dunn will disuss religious liberty issues tonight at 7. Sunday at 9:30 a.m. he will be speaking on the Southern Baptist Convention, past and future. He will speak again at the 11 a.m. service on being "Baptist."
The Baptist Joint Committee represents 12 Baptist denominations on religious liberty issues in Washington. The nation's largest Baptist denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, formally severed ties with the organization in a dispute over some of its positions. Several state Southern Baptist associations, including Virginia's, and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship continue to support the committee.
MissionFest Virginia
The Roanoke Valley Baptist Association is hosting a two day "MissionFest Virginia" event Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 at First Baptist Church, 515 Third Street Southwest.
The conference will highlight the foreign mission work of Southern Baptists. Friday's session begins at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday's at 9 a.m. Foreign missionaries will be on hand to describe their work. There will be children's activities available for ages 4-5 and grades 1 through 6.
The event is free. Additional information is available by calling 362-3463.
President elected
Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia have elected the Rev. Bob Melvin, a Fredericksburg pastor, as their new president. The group was organized last year to counter what its members perceive as the distancing of the moderate-controlled Baptist General Association of Virginia from the Southern Baptist Convention. It's members still belong to the state association, as well, however.
The group also adopted a $105,000 budget. That includes $58,000 for missions endeavors and $12,000 for salary and travel expenses of interim executive director Howard Baldwin. The group's treasurer reported that the organization received $117,000 in donations from 54 churches and 14 individuals between February 1993 and August 1994.
Food salvage
The Society of St. Andrew, a Big Island-based agency that sponsors salvage food collection and distribution, is making what it describes as an "emergency appeal" for funds for this winter.
Ray Buchanan, co-director of the organization, said he expects the federal Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Program to be cut at least in half this year, meaning 80 million to 160 million pounds of food will not be available for the poor. Missouri agencies are already calling the society for assistance in getting potatoes transported to that midwestern state, he said.
Donations to the Society of St. Andrew 1994 Emergency Appeal may be sent to Society of St. Andrew, P.O. Box 329, Big Island, VA 24526. Additional information is available by calling 800-333-4597.
Conference moved
The Rev. Jerry Falwell is apparently back on the schedule of the Arkansas Baptist Pastor's Conference after event organizers moved the site of his address.
The event originally was scheduled for President Clinton's home church, Immanuel Baptist, in Little Rock. Its pastor, the Rev. Rex Horne, asked that Falwell not be allowed to speak there because of the Lynchburg pastor's outspoken opposition to Clinton and his distribution of controversial videotapes that accuse the president of numerous improprieties and crimes.
The pastor of Little Rock's First Baptist Church agreed to have the conference there, though he said he was not a big fan of either Clinton or Falwell.
Signs of the times
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Along the road to salvation are many slogans.
The sign in front of Adamsville Church of God says, ``Salvation: Don't leave earth without it.''
A short distance away, at a busy intersection in Adamsville, Midway United Methodist Church Pastor Bobby Shaw considered the heavy traffic in front of the church an opportunity for a sentence-long sermon.
The church's 8-foot-tall sign features a message that changes weekly. On a recent week, it said ``Hatred and anger are powerless when met with kindness.''
``It's a way of getting messages out across the community and it speaks to them 24 hours a day,'' Shaw said.
Christian booksellers who market quotation books used for the signs say the sign craze has hit a boom phase.
``It's all the rage now and we are getting requests from all over,'' said Ted O'Brien, marketing director for Riverside Book and Bible, a worldwide distribution company based in Iowa Falls, Iowa. ``I think it's part of a trend over the last couple of years to make things remembered, and to make people think a little bit as they're driving by.''
Some of the messages: ``Your seat in eternity: Will it be smoking or non-smoking?'' and ``Don't bother to give God instructions, just report.''
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