CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (RNS) — Tithing to mainline Protestant churches as a percentage of income is at its lowest level in at least 41 years, according to a new report, and churches are keeping a greater share of those donations for…
Under pressure, D.C. shelter ends church-service requirement
WASHINGTON (RNS) — Prompted by civil liberties groups, a taxpayer-supported homeless shelter in the nation’s capital will no longer require its clients to attend religious services. “We’re pleased that the D.C. government will no longer be supporting such religious coercion,”…
Fresh Expressions to be focus of 2011 Virginia Baptist Pastors Conference
RICHMOND, Va. — Innovative expressions of churches in changing cultures will be the focus of next month’s Virginia Baptist Pastors Conference, set for Nov. 7 in suburban Richmond, Va. The annual conference — held each year in conjunction with the…
BGAV to hear Alan Hirsch, adopt budget, consider new relationship
RICHMOND, Va. — As many as 1,000 people are expected to gather in Richmond, Va., Nov. 8-9 for the annual meeting of the Baptist General Association of Virginia, to be held in the Greater Richmond Convention Center. Alan Hirsch, a…
TRENDING: ‘Five-fold’ ministry
The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers …. (Ephesians 4:11) The 1980s brought a proliferation of “spiritual gifts inventories.” I first heard this taught by Peter Wagner at…
EDITORIAL: An associational touch
On Sunday, Oct. 16, an historic vote will be taken. In one form or another, the Albemarle Baptist Association has been around since 1791, when the Orange Baptist Association divided to form Culpeper, Goshen and Albemarle itself. In 2003, it…
OUT LOUD
“Sounds good to me.” Archbishop Philip Hannan The former archbishop of New Orleans, who died last month, was responding from his hospital bed to the part of the Sacrament of the Sick that offers absolution from sin in the name…
VITAL SIGNS: Are you ill?
My grandmother often used a word to describe herself or other people. It was the word “ill.” She did not use it to describe someone who was sick with a cold or the flu. She used it to describe an…
WINN RECOMMENDS
Kingdom Ethics: Following Jesus in Contemporary Context, Glen H. Stassen and David P. Gushee (IVP) Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount has long fueled Christian imagination and social rebellion. The Sermon offers Jesus’ tangible expression of what the Good Life in…
Washington’s National Cathedral needs millions in quake repairs
WASHINGTON (RNS) — The Washington National Cathedral will need “tens of millions of dollars” over “numerous years” to repair extensive damage to the nation’s second-largest church following an Aug. 23 earthquake, church officials said Oct. 4. The landmark church requires…
The Blue Ridge Mountains thunder again as motorcyclists gather for rally
LYNCHBURG, Va. — When 85-year old Bruce Heilman spoke to the motorcyclists who gathered at Eagle Eyrie Baptist Conference Center Sept. 30-Oct. 1, they listened with interest. When they discovered that he had ridden his own Harley to the event,…
Richmond, Va., church cancels services, packs meals for children
RICHMOND, Va. — On an overcast Sunday morning in Richmond, 500 volunteers gathered at Gayton Baptist Church in the city’s western suburbs to make a difference a half a world away, preparing healthy meals to feed 277 malnourished children a…