NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) — The Southern Baptist Convention reported declines last year in several categories traditionally used as markers of denominational vitality, according to annual statistics released June 9 by LifeWay Christian Resources. The 2010 Annual Church Profile showed dips…
2010 Lottie Moon Offering falls short
RICHMOND, Va. (ABP) — Southern Baptists gave $145.6 million to international missions through the 2010 Lottie Moon Offering, $3 million less than the previous year and $8.3 million less than the International Mission Board needs to meet its 2011 operating…
Professor says Southern Baptists should elect black president
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (ABP) — A seminary professor says the next president of the Southern Baptist Convention should be an African-American. Russell Moore, dean of the school of theology and senior vice president for academic administration at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary,…
Collaborative puts volunteers in diverse spiritual communities
RALEIGH, N.C. (ABP) — While “summer missions” is an icon of the evangelical landscape, orientation of 14 young people June 2-4 at Meredith College signaled a unique missions collaboration between the Alliance of Baptists and the United Church of Christ….
Former NAMB head praying for Obama’s defeat
WASHINGTON (ABP) — A former Southern Baptist Convention official told social conservatives at a weekend rally in Washington he is praying that President Obama is not elected to a second term. “I pray that a trumpet will announce the moving…
Southern Baptist Convention leader criticizes Obama on Israel
WASHINGTON (ABP) — The Southern Baptist Convention’s top public policy official called Barack Obama “the worst president of the United States that Israel has ever had” at a rally for social conservatives held June 3-4 in Washington. “The reason I…
Father’s warnings twice saved Japanese family from nuclear bombs
NEW BERN, N.C. (ABP) — Rieko Suganami Evans remembers the sky glowing strangely red behind a huge cloud and one little airplane flying out of the cloud. It was Aug. 6, 1945, and the Japanese city of Hiroshima had just…
Mars Hill College hires female chaplain with ties to CBF
MARS HILL, N.C. (ABP) — Mars Hill College, located in the conservative mountains of an increasingly conservative North Carolina Baptist environment, has hired an ordained woman with Cooperative Baptist Fellowship ties as campus chaplain. Stephanie McLeskey comes to Mars…
150 years after the Civil War, reminders of that conflict are fresh
One hundred and fifty years after Confederate artillery fired on Fort Sumter, S.C., and the Civil War began, reminders of the conflict that divided a nation remain fresh. Some see them any given Sunday morning when black Christians and white…
OPINION: Being Baptist — An interracial journey
One Sunday in January 1994, our family — Candyce, Stephanie and I — walked across the parking lot of the Sixth Avenue Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., after the morning service. An elderly African-American woman approached us and asked: “Reverend,…
CBF, Mercer collaborate to offer conference on sexuality in 2012
ATLANTA (ABP) — The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Mercer University are co-sponsors of a “[Baptist] Conference on Sexuality and Covenant” scheduled April 19-21, 2012, at First Baptist Church in Decatur, Ga. Organized by CBF’s Missional Congregations Initiative and Mercer’s Center…
CBF Coordinating Council adopts budget to propose next month
ATLANTA (ABP) – The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Coordinating Council voted by e-mail May 26 to recommend a 2011-2012 budget of $12.3 million at the group’s June 22-25 General Assembly in Tampa, Fla. The amount is $2.2 million less than this…