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…
Baptist camps tally their losses as COVID-19 summer comes to a close
In Central Florida this summer, the sounds at Lake Yale Baptist Conference Center resembled more a Quaker retreat than a rambunctious camp for teens yelling at the tops of their lungs. There was no frolicking in the lake or singing…
30 years ago today, Baptist news changed with two firings
The birth of Baptist News Global — formerly Associated Baptist Press — 30 years ago today was the offshoot of a decade or more of theological rift between two factions in Southern Baptist life. But theological posturing aside, the July…