ARLINGTON, Texas (ABP) — A prominent African-American pastor has announced plans to ask the Southern Baptist Convention to amend its constitution to ban churches that condone racism. Dwight McKissic Dwight McKissic, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas, said…
Judge says school cannot hold graduation ceremony in church
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (ABP) — A federal judge ruled May 31 that a Connecticut school district's plan to hold graduation ceremonies in a mega-church violates the constitutionally mandated separation of church and state and ordered school officials to find a secular…
Mercer taps former Southwestern prof for music slot
MACON, Ga. (ABP) — David Keith, a professor of church music at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary for 27 years before retiring in 2006, has been named director of the Townsend-McAfee Institute for Graduate Studies in Church Music at Mercer University…
Mercer taps former Southwestern prof to lead church-music institute
MACON, Ga. (ABP) — David Keith, a professor of church music at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary for 27 years before retiring in 2006, has been named director of the Townsend-McAfee Institute for Graduate Studies in Church Music at Mercer University…
CBF leader seeks to rally churches to make up mission offering shortfall
ATLANTA (ABP) — A Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's leader is appealing to churches to step up contributions to an annual Offering for Global Missions running 30 percent behind projected receipts. At the end of April, receipts to the offering totaled just…
CBF leader seeks to rally churches to make up missions-offering shortfall
ATLANTA (ABP) — A Cooperative Baptist Fellowship leader is appealing to churches to step up contributions to the organization's annual Offering for Global Missions, which is currently running 30 percent behind projected receipts. Receipts to the offering as of April…
Former SBC president Ed Young undergoes bypass surgery
HOUSTON (ABP) — Former Southern Baptist Convention president Ed Young is recovering from triple-coronary-bypass surgery May 27. Ed Young According to media reports, Young, pastor of Second Baptist Church in Houston, went to the hospital earlier in the week after…
Church secretary accused of embezzling $1.5 million
MORRISTOWN, Tenn. (ABP) — A Southern Baptist church in East Tennessee is considering cutting back on ministries amid reports that a trusted employee of 47 years embezzled more than $1.5 million in church funds. Barbara Whitt (Hamblen County Sheriff's Department…
Father of fallen Marine files brief in case against Westboro Baptist Church
WASHINGTON (ABP) — The father of a Marine killed in Iraq in 2006 filed a brief May 24 with the Supreme Court arguing that the free-speech rights of a Baptist church that picketed his son's funeral should not trump his…
Revival of outdoor baptismal services connects churches to communities
(Editor's note: The originally published version of this story omitted the name of one of the two writers, John Hall, from its byline.) DENTON, Texas (ABP) — Some Baptist churches are going back to the future — and making a…
Board distances BGCT from gay-affirming Dallas church
DALLAS (ABP) — The Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board voted May 25 to refuse any financial contributions from a Dallas church that has ordained as deacons practicing homosexuals, and the board has asked the church to stop identifying…
Passport VP nominated as CBF moderator-elect
ATLANTA (ABP) — Colleen Burroughs, vice president of the Passport youth camping ministry she started with her husband in 1993, will be nominated as moderator-elect of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, the Atlanta-based CBF announced May 24. If elected, she would…