Buckner International, BGCT forge immigration ministry. The Baptist General Convention of Texas and Buckner International are partnering to create the first nationwide effort for local, church-based ministry to help immigrants become U.S. citizens. Through their new Immigration Service and Aid Center (ISAAC), the two Baptist groups plan to help congregations across the country find training to start government-accredited immigration centers that help individuals become citizens. The aid center will also help churches and individual leaders gain government accreditation. Accreditation enables churches to help immigrants prepare immigration forms and, under certain circumstances, represent them in court. Services of the center also will include assistance in obtaining basic immigration-law training; clergy-citizenship assistance; immigration-ministry-center development; and education and information for churches.
Baptist college association elects leader. The International Association of Baptist Colleges and Universities board elected Thomas Corts, president emeritus of Samford University, as the association's executive director. Corts, 65, succeeds Bob Agee, who announced last December he would retire at the June meeting. Corts' brother, Paul, is president of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. Thomas Corts served as interim chancellor of the Alabama College System last year. Prior to that position, he was president of Samford University from 1983 to 2006. He served previously at Wingate University in North Carolina, the Higher Education Consortium of Kentucky and Georgetown College in Kentucky. Corts is married to the former Marla Ruth Haas. They have three children and six grandchildren.
CBF church-starting specialist to retire. Phil Hester, a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship specialist for new churches, has announced he plans to retire at the end of this year. During his seven-year tenure at the fellowship, Hester helped start churches in 21 different states, including a cowboy church in Texas and an emergent church in Florida. Hester also created and facilitated the annual CBF Boot Camp for Church Starts, held each August. The camp helps prepare church planters to start churches. Before coming to CBF, Hester worked as an advertising agency president, professor, consultant and church starter. He lives in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Missionary receives Whitsitt Society award. Lauren Bethell, an American Baptist missionary who has spent most of her adult life ministering to and rescuing women from prostitution and sexual trafficking, received the William H. Whitsitt Baptist Heritage Society's annual Courage Award. The group met during the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship general assembly in Washington, June 28.
African-American convention tackles AIDS. For the first time, the nation's largest African-American religious body corporately addressed the HIV/AIDS crisis. AIDS awareness and prevention figured prominently on the agenda for the annual meeting of the National Baptist Convention USA, Inc. in St. Louis. Leaders of the 7.5 million-member group said 45,000 National Baptists participated in the gathering. Organizers also planned to hold a forum to address 3,000 black youths on the topic of HIV prevention. Nationwide, African-Americans constitute nearly half of new HIV/AIDS diagnosis. HIV infection is the United States' leading cause of death for black women aged 25-34, according to the Centers for Disease Control.