Steve Burger, former executive director of the Association of Gospel Rescue Missions, urges Americans not to give money to the homeless on the streets. “If you give a dollar to a panhandler, often you are really funding the local tavern…
OFFERINGS: Harding brings clean water, love of Christ to Ethiopians
ATLANTA — In Ethiopia, the new rush of fresh, drinkable water brings a rush of joy. “When you strike water and the well starts to work, you should hear the joy,” said David Harding, one of CBF's global missions field…
OFFERINGS: Ukrainian believers take gospel to Kazakhstan
PAVLODAR, Kazakhstan (BP) — Roman Gopanchuk gestures with his left hand and leans forward to explain a Scripture passage to his home Bible study group in Pavlodar, Kazakhstan. Just outside the living room door, Gopanchuk's 8-year-old son, Timofey, plays with…
Virginia Baptists assisting victims of devastating cyclone in Bangladesh
RICHMOND — Virginia Baptists are providing assistance to victims of the cyclone that devastated parts of Bangladesh in November. More than 3,500 people were killed in the Ganges River delta along the Bay of Bengal. Terry Raines, coordinator for mobile…
British Baptists apologize for slavery, acknowledge ‘appalling consequences’
SWANWICK, England (BWA) — Baptists in Britain have apologized for the slave trade. The Council of the Baptist Union of Great Britain — widely known as BUGB— which met in Swanwick, England, on Nov. 12-14, passed a resolution saying, “We…
Ugandan Baptist pastor counsels people with AIDS
BARARA, Uganda (BP)—Dressed in a suit coat and tie, Nabath Atusasire looks a little out of place as he picks his way through an overgrown banana grove. The humid heat of southern Uganda presses on him. Slick-soled dress shoes provide…
OFFERINGS: Bandela partners with Indian church starters in ministry
ATLANTA — For five years, Sam Bandela, one of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's global missions field personnel, has been working patiently among hill tribes in the mountainous central region of India. Even as tsunami relief and personal challenges intervened, Bandela…
New Baptist Covenant preach-in features Forbes, other notables
ATLANTA (ABP) — A miniature preaching festival within next year's Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant will feature one of the nation's most famous preachers among a group that is broadly diverse in terms of ethnic background, gender, denominational affiliation…
We three kings of Orient are … mostly unknown to Christians
They came. They saw. They gifted. That's about all we know of the foreign visitors who traveled to Bethlehem to see the infant Jesus. The scene ingrained in the public imagination — a stately procession of three kings in turbans,…
Blair, afraid of being labeled a ‘nutter,’ kept faith private
LONDON (RNS) — Former British prime minister Tony Blair says his religious faith, although rarely expressed in public, was “hugely important” to him but he feared he might be viewed as a “nutter” if he spoke out about it. Blair,…
State resolutions focus on alcohol, gambling, homosexuality, abuse
WASHINTON (ABP) — The pleasures of the flesh — specifically liquor and sex — were among the most popular subjects of resolutions passed by Southern Baptist-affiliated state conventions this fall. Although many state conventions avoided resolutions on controversial issues of…
Integrity demands preachers avoid pulpit plagiarism
If preachers pass off other people's work as their own, they automatically limit themselves to preaching about only eight commandments. “Thou shalt not steal” and “thou shalt not bear false witness” become off-limits. But preachers can avoid plagiarism by beginning…