By Jeff Brumley Some see the nation’s burgeoning church merger and multisite movements resulting from larger congregations preying on smaller ones, pressuring them into relinquishing buildings and land in exchange for survival. In some circles, that’s called “steeple-jacking.” But it’s…
Baptists put backs into ‘Loving Oklahoma’
By Jeff Brumley This week’s “Loving Oklahoma” campaign comes at just the right moment for disaster-response coordinators who are launching a new phase in the recovery from May’s deadly tornadoes. “We are in the process of switching from cleanup to…
Refugees reap blessing after Okla. twisters
By Jeff Brumley It was 97 degrees in Oklahoma City Friday afternoon, and the 22-mph wind made it even hotter as Missourian Amy Heap and her misson team from CrossHaven Church spent hours unloading four box trucks containing furniture. But heat…
Sharing faith through furniture
This story was edited after posting. By Jeff Brumley Twenty-seven families in Moore, Okla., received a combined 325 pieces of furniture Saturday during a church-run furniture distribution for victims of the May tornadoes. Moore resident John Wright described it as just…
CBFNC spreading gospel of farming
By Jeff Brumley Cooperative Baptists in North Carolina are forging a network of church and other faith-based garden and farming ministries in hopes of inspiring more congregations to grow food for those in need. The effort’s center of gravity is…
Youth trip boosts Miss. Delta town
By Jeff Brumley No one expected a vacation Bible school run by a visiting Baptist youth group to be a catalyst for racial healing in Shaw,Miss. Yet, by all accounts that’s just what the June visit by 34 youngsters from Houston’s South Main…
Religious moderates face challenge
By Jeff Brumley New research predicting the rise of religious progressives and a conservative decline presents a challenge to those in the middle, including moderate Baptists, according to some leading Baptist and other Christian activists and thinkers. The Public Religion Research Institute survey…
Study finds health benefit to Jewish prayer
By Jeff Brumley Rabbi Yossi Posner knows from experience that Jews who fervently pray and regularly attend synagogue tend to enjoy a greater quality of life than those who don’t. “When people are praying and more in tune with their inner…
Historian seeks return to communion wine
By Jeff Brumley Jason Coker says most members of his Connecticut Baptist church are social drinkers in a culture where alcohol consumption is expected. “I tell interns who come up here if you are in a social setting and you…
Experts: VBS needs missional focus
By Jeff Brumley Relatively few of the 90 to 100 children who attend vacation Bible school at Hendricks Avenue Baptist Church each summer are members of the Jacksonville, Fla., congregation. And that’s just fine with children’s minister Faith McCall. Offering…
Baptists team up for ‘Loving Oklahoma’
By Jeff Brumley The Baptist General Convention of Texas and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship announced today they will host a major disaster-recovery campaign in August for tornado-battered Oklahomans. “Loving Oklahoma” will be held Aug. 5-10 in five areas in the…
Stunned by arson, church will worship Sunday
By Jeff Brumley Investigators now know that arson was the cause of two fires that struck Providence Baptist Church in Charlotte, N.C., Wednesday morning. What authorities and the CBF-affiliated church still don’t know is who did it and why. “At…