By Jeff Brumley A Baylor University study shows that faith-based prisoner re-entry programs – at least in one case – help ex-cons, society and taxpayers. The study analyzed the InnerChange Freedom Initiative, a Minnesota program that uses volunteers and private…
Baptists boot scouts from Alaska church
By Jeff Brumley A Baptist congregation in Alaska has booted a local scouting troop because of the Boy Scouts of America decision to welcome openly gay members. The Anchorage Daily News reported that Anchorage Baptist Temple dropped its sponsorship of…
Jordan challenges Christians in new book
By Jeff Brumley In July 2012, author, professor and self-described Clarence Jordan devotee Brian Kaylor was doing research about the late Koinonia Farms founder when he discovered some mysterious boxes in the Jordan archives. When he figured out what was…
Doubt not a sin, says pastor to church hit by murder
By Jeff Brumley The Alabama church whose associate pastor was detained in a murder investigation learned Sunday that it’s OK for Southern Baptists to express anger and sadness and even to harbor doubts about God and faith when faced with…
‘So many Baptists’ at Wild Goose
By Jeff Brumley The third-annual Wild Goose Festival opened Thursday in the mountains of North Carolina, with organizers and many participants hoping the outdoor gathering will heal divisions between conservative, progressive and moderate Christians. National leaders of the “Christian convergence”…
When small churches merge with large ones
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…