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SBC DIGEST: GuideStone releases Ministers’ Tax Guide; SWBTS professor Charles A. Tidwell dies


GuideStone announces release of its Ministers’ Tax Guide

By Holly Taylor

DALLAS (BP) – GuideStone has released its most popular annual publication, the 2021 Ministers’ Tax Guide for 2020 Returns, available now for GuideStone participants at GuideStone.org/TaxGuide. The tax guide includes tax highlights for 2020 – including 2021 annual contribution limits, 2021 standard business mileage rates and certain tax implications of the CARES Act – along with step-by-step filing instructions for ministers’ personal taxes and comprehensive examples and sample forms.

Additionally, GuideStone participant churches and church administrators have access to the annual Federal Reporting Requirements for Churches. This publication is included in the full tax guide or as a separate electronic copy.

GuideStone participants can receive both free resources by visiting GuideStone.org/TaxGuide or can request a free printed copy of the tax guide by calling 1-888-98-GUIDE (1-888-984-8433) (printed copies are limited).

The guide was again written this year by Richard Hammar, a noted CPA, attorney and widely published author who specializes in legal and tax issues for ministers.

“We are thankful once again to provide the tax guide for our participants and their preparers,” said GuideStone President O.S. Hawkins. “This free guide is a tangible way in which we live out our vision of honoring the Lord by being a lifelong partner with our participants in enhancing their financial security.”


‘Legacy professor’ Charles A. Tidwell dies

By Alex Sibley

FORT WORTH, Texas (BP) – Charles A. Tidwell, professor of administration at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary from 1965-1995, died Jan. 28. He was 89.

“We mourn the loss of a cherished professor and friend to countless students over decades of service at Southwestern Seminary,” said President Adam W. Greenway. “I encourage all Southwesterners to be in prayer for the Tidwell family.”

Tidwell was born on July 14, 1931, in Montgomery, Ala. He received a Bachelor of Arts at Baylor University in 1953, a Master of Religious Education degree at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in 1955, and a Doctor of Education degree at Southwestern Seminary in 1970. He later did additional studies at The American University in Washington, D.C., during a sabbatical leave in the areas of church program development and church family financial planning.

Prior to his seminary teaching, Tidwell was a church administration consultant, section leader and editor with the Baptist Sunday School Board (now Lifeway Christian Resources). He also was assistant professor of religious education and Bible at Mississippi College from 1963-1965, and throughout his career, he served churches in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Germany.

Tidwell joined the faculty at Southwestern Seminary in 1965, teaching most of the courses offered in the School of Religious Education’s Department of Administration over the next 30 years, as well as developing new courses in this field of study. In 1977, he was named to fill the newly endowed Chair of Denominational Relations established by the Sunday School Board. The inauguration of this chair provided for additional instruction in all the programs fostered by the Board.

Upon his retirement in 1995, Tidwell said of this role, “As Chair of Denominational Relations, I was the designated person on the campus to expedite relationships between the Sunday School Board and the faculty and students regarding services, materials and programs the Board provided.”

Tidwell wrote two books – The Educational Ministry of a Church (1982) and Church Administration: Leadership for Effectiveness in Ministry (1985) – and co-authored Creative Church Administration and a manual for Training Potential Sunday School Workers. In 2020, he co-edited (with J. Jonathan Kim) a second edition of The Educational Ministry of a Church.

Kim, a two-time graduate of Southwestern Seminary (M.A.R.E., 1988; Ph.D., 1992) and associate dean of the College of Christian Faith at Dallas Baptist University, wrote in the preface to this second edition, “I owe [Dr. Tidwell] much of my knowledge in the educational ministry of a church. I went back again and again to what I learned from him while serving as minister of education at Berendo Street Baptist Church in Los Angeles, California, in the early 1990s, and while teaching Christian education since 1995 at Southwestern Seminary and Dallas Baptist University.”

Read the full story here.


Holly Taylor is the content marketing editor for GuideStone Financial Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention.

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