The answer to the question, “What are the top challenges facing Baptists today?” depends on whom you ask, doesn’t it? Comedians might remind us that the call to have more children to buttress evangelistic efforts guarantees Baptist survival. Some Southern…
HERITAGE: Miss Alma’s cententary
This week in our history Alma Hunt reached her centenary. Miss Alma died in June 2008 at age 98. If she had lived another 16 months she would have observed her 100th birthday on Oct. 5. Surely there would have…
From Virginia to Standing Rock Reservation is a road well-traveled
The Tipi Wakan (Sacred Tent) Mission in Cannon Ball, N.D. RICHMOND, Va. — The roads from Virginia to the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North and South Dakota span more than 1,600 miles and have been well-traveled this year as Virginia…
EDITORIAL: How to treat your pastor’s wife
For the last nine months, I have had the great pleasure of serving the Kilmarnock Baptist Church as their interim pastor. They have recently called Matt Tennant who will begin Oct. 18. Matt and his wife have two young sons….
From the Eastern Shore to Cumberland Gap
STAFF CHANGES • Doug Odle, to Green Valley Church, Lebanon, as associate and youth pastor. • Don Taylor, resigning as pastor of Ni River Community Church, Fredericksburg. • Joel Bradberry, concluding his ministry at Black Creek Church, Mechanicsville. • Larry…
Debt keeps families, churches from reaching potential
If Americans had followed biblical financial principles, they could have lessened — or completely avoided — the worst recession in decades, two prominent Christian money management specialists said. “Debt may not be a sin, but it is certainly a curse,”…
Some call for reclaiming the lost virtue of thrift
Some social analysts observe the United States in the past half-century has shifted from a Bedford Falls-like culture of small businesses and community-friendly savings and loan institutions to a Pottersville-style nightmare of predatory lenders and seedy businesses that target the…
‘Generosity’ may communicate in ways ‘stewardship’ misses
A 2,000-year-old incident continues to set the standard for what it means to be a generous church. The New Testament records the need: “Our Jerusalem brothers and sisters need our help.” And in the face of difficult financial circumstances, the…
Debt keeps families, churches from reaching potential, say advisers
If Americans had followed biblical financial principles, they could have lessened — or completely avoided — the worst recession in decades, two prominent Christian money management specialists said. “Debt may not be a sin, but it is certainly a curse,”…
Some social analysts call for reclaiming the lost virtue of thrift
Some social analysts observe the United States in the past half-century has shifted from a Bedford Falls-like culture of small businesses and community-friendly savings and loan institutions to a Pottersville-style nightmare of predatory lenders and seedy businesses that target the…
Ragan Courtney to lead workshop on integrating worship and the arts
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Integrating worship and the arts will be the focus of a one-day workshop led by Christian composer Ragan Courtney in November. The event, sponsored by the John Leland Center for Theological Studies in Falls Church, Va.,…
Flood relief teams won’t be deployed, but alert raised for service in Pacific
RICHMOND, Va. — Large numbers of Baptist disaster relief teams responding to recent flooding in Georgia have made it unnecessary for Virginia Baptists to send their own units, a disaster relief coordinator said Oct. 1. But a Norfolk, Va.-based “fly…