BCA e-letter

Welcome to the BCA E-letter!
Lately I’ve been thinking a bit about something Jimmy Draper told us BCA. During his address, he said, "It is a difficult thing to pass your values on to your children. It’s almost impossible to pass them on to your grandchildren."

I’ve been thinking about my grandfather, though I knew him as Papa. He died when I was a child, and my only real memories of him are scattered and fragmented and incomplete. Mostly I remember his stuff. During the last years of his life, he had a cane that I loved to play with. And he had a beat-up hunting cap I would take from his closet and run around his and Meme’s house playing and being rambunctious.

But that’s really all I know about him. Sure, I’ve heard he had a temper, but I never really experienced it. As I watch Meme grow older, I wonder how much will my children know about her after she’s gone. Even closer to home, I wonder how much my children’s children will know about me when I join Papa and (by then) Meme in heaven.

As a communicator, I’ve become comfortable sharing my life with the public, telling other people’s stories and (if I’m lucky) sharing a bit of myself with people I’ll undoubtedly never meet. But I must not ignore the need to communicate to my own family. What will my children tell my grandchildren about me? Will they be able to tell them how I demonstrated Christ in a way that gently guided them to Jesus? Will they be able to say that I served God by the gift of words He gave me? Or will they say that I was so busy sharing myself with the rest of the world that I never had a chance to get to know them?

Sean Taylor 
BCA Newsletter Editor

1. Membership renewals 
2. Top 10 Christian books of the century 
3. Grapevine
4. Word Games - What’s your trouble spot?
Membership renewals

The BCA membership renewal fee is $75, and renewal forms were mailed in late June for the 2000-2001 year. If you haven’t received a renewal form, please contact Keith Beene in the BCA office at 615-904-0152 or bca.office@att.net, and he’ll be glad to send you one.

In the April 24 issue of Christianity Today, the editors listed the Top 100 books of the century. The books chosen were not all necessarily what one might consider "Christian" books, but instead were those that "have enduring significance for the Christian faith and church." The top 10 included:

10. Moral Man and Immoral Society, Reinhold Neibuhr 
9. My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers
8. Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster
7. The Seven Storey Mountain, Thomas Merton
6. Orthodoxy, G.K. Chesterton
5. The Politics of Jesus, John Howard Yoder
4. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
3. Church Dogmatics, Karl Barth
2. The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer
1. Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis

Debbie Moore is now a freelance writer and editor, living in the mountains outside Charleston, West Virginia, and is campaign secretary for a Christian woman who is running for governor, Denise Giardina. She may be reached at deborahcmoore@hotmail.com.

Charles R. Richardson, director of media relations at Hardin-Simmons University and a member of BCA since 1965, is the author of newly published book, "True Servant Leader: James H. Landes." The 177-page book, provides an overview of Dr. Landes' three years, 1963 to 1966, as president of the Texas Baptist university in Abilene. Landes later served as executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, 1974-1982.

Carolyn Curtis and the On Mission magazine staff (Joe Conway, Missy Greenoe, Sean Taylor, Betsy McMurray) returned from the annual Evangelical Press Association conference this spring with top honors in the missionary periodical category for the 1999 EPA "Awards of Excellence." This is a national competition that includes more than 180 Christian periodicals. Members include Focus on the Family, Christianity Today, Inc., Campus Crusade for Christ and many others.

Sean Taylor is now editor, adult mission education organizations at the North American Mission Board. He is the former associate editor of On Mission magazine.

When do you use missions and when do you use mission? Some say, "missions trip" and some say, "mission trip." Some say, "missions opportunities," and some say "mission opportunities."

E-mail your responses to the new newsletter editor, Stacey Hamby, at shamby@wordandway.org for a future issue.