Last year my wife and I, on a trip to Maine, included our annual detour to Salem, Mass. It’s a fascinating city just outside Boston, filled with literary and pre-Colonial history. Quite an industry has grown up around the historic…
Nathan Porter called a generation of Baptists to serve Christ and love the poor
A prince of a guy who loved challenging youth to consider a call to ministry and, on the other hand, someone who was the conscience of many Southern Baptists on poverty and race relations. That’s how friends are remembering Nathan…
Annie’s Link keeps those cards and letters coming
When Jenny Nethery sat at her desk and pondered ways to keep in touch with employees of the former Home Mission Board, she never envisioned a communications tool that would eventually span nearly 1,000 individuals from multiple agencies. In 1997,…
Six days after BNG report, Georgia convention finds new funds for retiree health benefits
Less than a week after a Baptist News Global report about Georgia Baptist retirees unexpectedly losing promised lifetime medical benefits, the head of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board announced a reversal of plans. During an inspirational rally Sunday night, Nov….
Georgia Baptists eliminate retiree benefits, citing budget concerns
Cheerful-looking envelopes from the Georgia Baptist Mission Board that dropped in the mailboxes of nearly 200 retirees in mid-September appeared to contain good news. They depicted a senior-adult couple sitting on a park bench. The envelopes presented an assumed message:…
How one Vietnamese convert sparked a church-planting movement that defied the odds
The afternoon Bible study in what was then called Saigon began as most others, with a group of curious Vietnamese nationals walking into a small, nondescript home. They attended for a variety of reasons, but primarily to learn English and…
State conventions beyond the South question SBC North American Mission Board’s spending and accountability for church planting
A decade-long disagreement over how Southern Baptists fund church planting and missions in North America is coming to a head and threatens the sanctity of the denomination’s spirit of cooperative giving. The result: State conventions outside the South are reducing…
With five weeks remaining in this bizarre year, churches hope to finish well fiscally
While stuffed Americans put away the Thanksgiving leftovers and turn to the online Black Friday shopping ritual, houses of worship are hoping their members will drop by their websites as well. As the year of COVID approaches its first end,…
Pandemic summer makes the finances of running a camp even harder
If owning and managing a camp or conference center was hard before March 15, consider the difficulty created after COVID-related cancellations began pouring in. Baptists saw the first crack in the viability of running retreat and conference centers seven years…