Clarifying its identity is essential for a church committed to remaining in a downtown setting, congregational consultants and pastors of vibrant in-town churches observe. “I think the most important question a congregation can ask is: Who is God calling us…
Urban churches embrace their in-town context
Eighty percent of success is showing up, Woody Allen once famously said. Paraphrasing the film director’s wit, increasing numbers of downtown churches have discovered that a high percentage of successful ministry is staying put. Committed to “blooming where they’re planted,”…
OPINION: What’s going on?
For the last five years I’ve been immersed in thoughts about the prophetic role of the Church in our world. Part of this fascination is due to the belief that the work of artists inherently holds the opportunity to be…
Leaders judged only by Christ, says seminary president
LYNCHBURG, Va.—“Play to an audience of one,” a seminary president told a leadership conference May 4. Jeff Iorg, president of Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in suburban San Francisco, was keynote speaker at the May 4-5 Leadership Gathering at Eagle…
Berryville, Va., church aims to put smile on faces
BERRYVILLE, Va.—“Free stuff makes everyone smile,” said Tim Walraven after attending Berryville (Va.) Baptist Church’s “Free for All” yard sale April 14. Linda Gum looks through the “Free for All” yard sale items. And that’s what the church was hoping…
Raceway becomes focus of ministry for weekend
HENRICO, Va.—Twice a year a 1,000-acre plot of land in Henrico County, Va., becomes the fifth largest city in Virginia as approximately 200,000 race fans descend on the Richmond International Raceway for three days of NASCAR racing. For the 12th…
Ethnic labels a hindrance to unity in Christ
Ethnic labels and segregation at the Lord’s Supper table thwart Christian unity, a Baptist international leader told participants at a Christian ethics lecture series in the United States. Neville Callam, general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance, delivered the 12th…
SBC leader issues apologies for comments
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP)—After initially defending comments accusing black leaders of politicizing the death of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, the head of Southern Baptists’ Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission issued back-to-back apologies regarding statements he made on his radio program. Richard…
Veteran minister reflects on black church life
BELTON, Texas—After more than five decades of ministry, George Harrison understands what African-American Christians have gained and lost in the last half-century. Harrison, pastor emeritus of First Baptist Church-NBC in Waco, Texas, and a veteran church musician, vividly remembers life…
Racial tensions simmer beneath surface in America
A neighborhood watchman in Florida shoots and kills a hoodie-wearing African-American teenager. Two white suspects in Tulsa, Okla., confess to the Easter weekend shooting of five people in a predominantly black neighborhood. Periodically, racial tensions that have simmered beneath the…
Conservatives go after ‘NASCAR Christian’ vote
RICHMOND, Va. (RNS)—Back in John Kerry’s ill-fated 2004 presidential campaign, Democrats tried to attract so-called “NASCAR Dads”—white, working-class, mainly Southern fellows—to try to blunt George W. Bush’s re-election and show folks that Kerry was not a wealthy patrician who only…
Conservatives go after ‘NASCAR Christian’ vote
RICHMOND, Va. (RNS)—Back in John Kerry’s ill-fated 2004 presidential campaign, Democrats tried to attract so-called “NASCAR Dads”—white, working-class, mainly Southern fellows—to try to blunt George W. Bush’s re-election and show folks that Kerry was not a wealthy patrician who only…