These days, clergy and laity, professors and students alike generally agree that basic knowledge of the Bible is fast disappearing among Americans conservative, moderate and liberal. Indeed, in recent years I have occasionally received notes from undergraduate and graduate students…
Jameson joins Wake Forest Divinity School advancement staff
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Norman Jameson, a veteran Baptist journalist whose bylines have appeared recently in the Religious Herald and Associated Baptist Press, has joined the advancement staff at Wake Forest University. Jameson, 58, serves as assistant dean for development for…
OPINION: Short-term missions should not undermine field personnel
At the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina General Assembly in March, we collected a mission offering designated for the newly formed Haiti Housing Network. CBF is one of the principal partners in this network, which has the ambitious goal…
Israel policy debate not just secular vs. religious
By David Gushee Last week Glen Stassen and I released an “Open Letter to America’s Christian Zionists.” We claimed that out of a well-intentioned love of Israel, Christian Zionists are misreading Scripture and actually endangering Israel. Christian Zionists yearn for…
Second CBF leader announces retirement plans for June 2012
ATLANTA (ABP) — Terry Hamrick, coordinator of missional visioning at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, announced he will retire effective June 30, 2012, after more than 15 years as a part of the Atlanta Resource Center’s senior leadership team. Terry Hamrick…
Pairing ministers and churches has never been easy, say observers
More an art than a science, matching a minister's skills with a church's needs has tested the limits of generations of pastoral search committees. And for Baptists — fiercely committed to local church autonomy and resistant to outside influences —…
New Baptist Covenant II to unite Baptists personally and virtually
ATLANTA (ABP) — In about two months, Baptists of many stripes will gather simultaneously in dozens of cities across the country for a unique virtual meeting, during which they will not only worship and learn but spread out to work…
God and the free market
WACO, Texas — Milton Friedman, meet Rick Warren. Americans who strongly believe God has a plan for their lives are most likely to believe God guides the United States through a free market — and they want to see the…
Should ministers get second chances?
RICHMOND, Va. — When a minister gets fired, will a search committee automatically set his or her resume aside or give it a fair hearing? Many pastors who had to leave their churches discover search committees are reluctant to interview…