FORK UNION — Vinny Testaverde has traveled far and wide throughout his long NFL career, and has earned many honors and accolades, but this week he returned to Fork Union, where his dream of earning a scholarship to play college…
Baptists’ grass-roots identity helped spread key ideas
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (ABP) — While Baptists may not be able to claim sole credit as the originators of ideas such as religious liberty and the modern missionary movement, the denomination’s identification with common folk helped them become “popularizers” of these…
Book says SBC lacks system of preventing sexual abuse
AUSTIN, Texas (ABP) — A book released in advance of the June 23-24 annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention claims the nation's largest Protestant faith group has more than 100,000 clergy, but no effective system of denominational oversight to…
OUT LOUD
“A faithful pastor cannot preach the gospel to unbelievers, let alone exhort and, dare I say, rebuke, backslidden and unregenerate church members, while satisfying a politically correct standard of niceness. This is the sort of niceness we could do with…
SECOND OPINION: Opening up without watering down
Baptist churches of the Old South had a lovely image for describing entrance into church membership. They would announce that a door of the church was open. Anyone who came forward was asked to give a verbal confession of “their…
HERITAGE: Transitions
On the last Sunday of May, Bill Tuck was extended warm farewells as he concluded a 20-month interim pastorate at the First Baptist Church of Raleigh, N.C. The congregation formed a long line to give handshakes and hugs to Bill…
Sewing skills are key for Portsmouth congregation
PORTSMOUTH — It started with a sewing pattern and a mission conference. Bruce Powers, pastor of Westhaven Baptist Church in Portsmouth, attended the MC2 conference sponsored by the VBMB last summer at Eagle Eyrie. Staffers of the Woman’s Missionary Union…
Virginia Baptists respond to W. Va. floods
GILBERT, W.Va. (BP) — In the wake of flash floods that washed away rural roads and even mountainsides over six southern West Virginia counties on Mother’s Day weekend, Virginia Baptists joined other Baptist disaster relief feeding units and mud-out crews…
Virginia Baptist Foundation awards scholarships
RICHMOND — Ann F. Brown, chair of the scholarship committee of the Virginia Baptist Foundation, announced 53 scholarship recipients totaling $101,000 during the second annual Scholarship Recognition Service held May 31, at the Virginia Baptist Resource Center. Scholarship recipients gathered…