By Bob Allen The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Virginia unanimously elected a new field coordinator at a called General Assembly Dec. 5 at Central Baptist Church in North Chesterfield, Va. Terry Maples, who for the last five-and-a-half years has held…
Preachers endorse Ted Cruz
By Bob Allen Presidential candidate Ted Cruz has announced endorsements from both his current pastor and a semi-retired Southern Baptist preacher who baptized him when he was 8 years old. Gregg Matte, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Houston,…
Controversial Wiley Drake ministers to San Bernardino survivors
By Bob Allen A former second vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention counseled survivors of Wednesday’s deadly shooting in San Bernardino, Calif. Wiley Drake, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park, Calif., elected an SBC officer in…
Black, white ‘First Baptist’ congregations unite after 150 years
By Bob Allen Two historic congregations that went separate ways after the Civil War worshipped for the first time in more than 150 years as a unified First Baptist Church of Murfreesboro, Tenn., Nov. 29. First Baptist Church at 200…
SBHLA director announces retirement plans
By Bob Allen Bill Sumners, an archivist who for more than 30 years has overseen one of the most respected historical collections by a religious denomination, will retire next July as director of the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives….
D.C. church postponing vote on gay marriage
By Bob Allen With the anticipated ending of a search for a new pastor, First Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., has postponed a vote scheduled in February about whether to change the congregation’s wedding policy to permit same-sex marriage. An…
SBC adviser urges temperate talk in abortion debate
By Bob Allen An adviser to the Southern Baptist Convention’s public-policy arm joined abortion-rights groups and political leaders including presidential candidates Ben Carson and Bernie Sanders in urging abortion opponents to tone down their rhetoric in the wake of a…
Ms. Pennington-Russell goes to Washington
Editor’s note: This story was updated Dec. 3 based on new information. It also corrects errors about the distance from the White House and clarifies that Harry Truman attended the church but was not a member. Baptist News Global regrets…
Pastor says Planned Parenthood leader hates God, loves death
By Bob Allen A Southern Baptist pastor in Florida responded to Friday’s shooting rampage at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado by claiming Planned Parenthood Federation of America President Cecile Richards hates God and loves death. In video of his…
Homeless items stolen from church
By Bob Allen A trailer full of clothes and blankets for the homeless has been stolen from a Southern Baptist church in Louisville, Ky. The trailer, used for the Helping Hands Ministry of Valley View Church in southern Jefferson County,…
Sale of LifeWay property finalized
By Bob Allen LifeWay Christian Resources has sold its headquarters in downtown Nashville, Tenn., for a reported $125 million cash, the second largest amount of money ever spent in the city for a building or property, to a San Diego-based…
Tennessee’s lone Arabic Baptist pastor dies
By Bob Allen A retired Southern Baptist missionary, whose attempts to evangelize Muslims in Middle Tennessee recently attracted attention in national media, died unexpectedly the day before Thanksgiving. Raouf Ghattas, 69, pastor of the Arabic Baptist Church in Murfreesboro, Tenn.,…