It's the holiday season and our thoughts are turned toward the message of Christmas...and the BCA Awards! View the Call for Entries packet and online payment options. The Call for Entries should have everything you need to know about submitting your best work for 2008. Please note the deadline for entries to be postmarked is January 26, 2009. Also note that all entries should be sent to the BCA Administrative Coordinator. Have a great Christmas and a super 2009.

It takes a lot for a Texan to admit something like this, but after nearly four years working for LifeWay, I love living in Nashville. A friend of mine in the music industry calls it "Nashvegas: the city of broken dreams." Musicians flood this city like waiters actors in Hollywood, hoping for that big break. Others love the city because of the creative vibe that infuses virtually every industry and walk of life. You can't go a block without seeing a huge billboard advertising a new release by a big star, or a sandwich board sign promoting an up-and-coming band playing at a club. They come from far and wide, hoping to make a name for themselves.

The theme "Finding Your Voice" just clicked when several of us here at LifeWay Christian Resources were sitting around thinking about what we would do if we hosted a workshop in Music City. The theme just fits. As program vice president for the Nashville workshop, April 15-18, 2009, the theme has touched just about everything I've been doing and planning.

If you haven't seen the invitation video we played at the Phoenix workshop, make sure and check it out. It's on the front page of the BCA Website. Quite honestly, I'd have to stretch the workshop to a full week in order to cram in all that I'd like for you to experience. Care for a little teaser? In addition to a slate of great workshop sessions, here's what we've got waiting for you:

• Ed Stetzer, director of LifeWay Research, has been called by the Dallas Morning News as "one of the more plain-spoken SBC figures on the challenges the denomination faces in what many are calling a post-denominational age." Ed will present research and examine trends that impact Christians inside and outside the SBC.
• Worship leader and recording artist Travis Cottrell, who this fall is marking his 10th year leading worship for Beth Moore's Living Proof Live events, will speak and give us a dinner concert.
• Dan Miller, career and business coach, speaker and author of the popular book 48 Days to the Work You Love and the 2008 release No More Mondays, will speak on one of his favorite topics - finding your voice by doing what God, by design, purposed for you.
• Tim Bisagno, will speak about his journey as God helped him find his voice in ministry. Tim is founder of MXTV (MissionX Television), a creative, eclectic and uninhibited presentation of the Gospel of Christ for today's younger generation.

I hope you will begin making plans to attend the workshop in April. Online registration will soon be open, so be on the lookout for that information in the next newsletter.

By Russ Rankin, 2009 Program Chair

Long time BCA member Eddy Oliver has agreed to take on the responsibility of the 2008-2009 BCA Awards Chairman. Originally Corey Miller had agreed to serve as a BCA officer in this position, but after taking on a new job, felt he could not handle both assignments.

During the September BCA officers meeting, Eddy, a member since 1985, was fast taking the reins of the new position, making suggestions for categories and soliciting feedback from officers and members. He has enlisted the help of staff members Kelly Durham and Ron Lawson to serve on his committee and to assist in recruiting judges and organizing the awards competition.

Eddy serves as a specialist in the Georgia Baptist Convention's Communications Services, developing Georgia Baptists' public relations strategy and overseeing a team of eight communicators. Prior to this position, he served a GBC consultant in the areas of Cooperative Program, Stewardship and State Missions development. He also brings to the table experience in SBC agency communications having served at the Home Mission Board and Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary.

It is not too late to have input in this year's awards competition. Please send any suggestions to Eddy at eoliver@gabaptist.org.

Please join your BCA officers in expressing to Eddy your gratitude for his willingness to assume this demanding role in the organization.

By Barbara Denman, 2008-09 President

Hey guys, It's time to go through your organization, locate people who are not members of Baptist Communicators Association and coerce, chide, tackle, persuade, encourage, threaten - or whatever it takes to get them to join BCA. If they only knew - and you can tell them - what they are missing by not being a member of one of the best communications organizations ever established, they would be grateful to you for life. And you can't have too many people grateful to you.

As an incentive to enlist new members, BCA is offering those you want to enlist as members a chance to experience the annual workshop in Nashville at the Members' rate cost, rather than the cost for someone who is not a member. That way, they will have the opportunity to experience a workshop and see one of the member benefits before actually committing to membership.

Plus, the member enlisting the most people to attend the workshop may just get a special prize. So get going, and start praising the benefits of BCA membership to those who need to be a part of the organization.

By Eddy Oliver, 2009 Awards Chair

By Kelly Shrout
Employee Communications Editor, LifeWay Christian Resources

When I became a member of BCA in 2005, I was a bright-eyed, bushytailed new staff member with LifeWay's communications team. I was happily single, wore great name-brand clothes, held a fresh seminary degree in one hand and a $6 Starbucks latte in the other.

Oh, but how quickly life can change!

If you are like me, you can mark major personal milestones based on what was going on in your life at the time of BCA workshops.

The first BCA workshop I attended was in Denver in 2005. Five days before I flew to the Mile High City I had purchased a brand new red Mustang to celebrate my life as a young, professional single. The Mustang was my first new car purchase and at the risk of sounding really shallow  it has been the best purchase of my life. You see, I had saved up to buy a house, but Chris Turner, who also works with LifeWay's communication team, convinced me to buy the Mustang instead of a house. He reasoned that if I had a really cool car, I would soon find a rich, eligible bachelor who would marry me. Therefore, I would then have a Mustang, a man and a mansion. I took Chris' advice and... by BCA 2006 in Richmond, Va., I was engaged.

You know where this is going...

At BCA Mobile in 2007 I was a happy newlywed and at the 2008 workshop in Arizona I no longer sported classy, name-brand clothes... only the best maternity wear J.C. Penny offers. I enjoyed the Arizona workshop... well, the parts I remember. I barely got out of my hotel room as morning sickness had a relentless grip on me.

So when I first joined BCA in 2005 I was single, in 2006 I was engaged, in 2007 I was a newlywed, in 2008 I was expecting a baby and in 2009 I will be a new mommy. See what happens when you join BCA?

Our LifeWay staff will help host the 2009 BCA in Nashville and I look forward to what this year will bring for all of us. Who will be single? Who will be engaged? Who will be married? Who will be expecting a baby? Who will be retiring? And most importantly, who will buy my red Mustang since a car seat doesn't fit in the back and there aren't enough cup holders to accommodate both my latte and a baby bottle.

The Word of God reminds us that our lives are mere vapors. James 4:14 states, "You don't even know what tomorrow will bring - what your life will be! For you are a bit of smoke that appear for a while, then vanishes." So let's celebrate God's blessings while we can. Even better - let's celebrate them with each other.

In my never ending search to find ways to fund my college (and now seminary) education, imagine my delight when I found a scholarship sponsored a fellowship of Christians who shared my passion using God-given gifts to communicate with others. I was grateful to receive any and every cent I could, but the knowledge that it was fellow Baptists who were helping me made the gift all the more special. I think every Baptist journalism/communication/PR student should apply. Heck, if I were a journalism prof at one of our Baptist schools, I'd make it a class requirement.

Christian journalism (or any other form of communication) can be a lonely profession and it's easy to feel like we are alone in our efforts. BCA provides a way to get to know a surprisingly diverse crowd of commuincation professional with amazing gifts, and that's not even taking into account the resouces, networking, job listings, workshop or contest opportunities. Membership doesn't look too shabby on a resume, either. The only thing BCA is missing is a dating/matchmaking service!

Even over the past few years, I've watched the BCA grow and work toward new ways to serve its members. Anyone and everyone should should give BCA a shot.

So do you know what all the members of BCA look like? If you come to the workshops, you'll have a good idea. But there are probably still a few surprises out there for you.

We've been working on a password-protected internal membership directory that contains photos and contact information for the website. We've gotten all the photos that have been sent in uploaded, but if you're missing feel free to send it to webmaster@baptistcommunicators.org. We've also put up the original headshot photos on the BaptistComm Flickr account (you can see them if your a friend of the account - just request it).

You should be receiving the password in an e-mail soon, and the password is also available on the BCA Facebook group. For security purposes, we'll probably change the password once every six months.

By Cam Tracy, Historian/Webmaster