ALLEN, Texas — When a Connections class at First Baptist Church in Allen, Texas, began meeting in January a year ago, its diverse membership included a self-proclaimed atheist who attended because he had a friend at church, three unmarried cohabiting couples…
BTSR trustees chart future course, plan ‘orderly selling’ of buildings
RICHMOND, Va. (ABP) — Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond trustees have adopted a new business plan that calls for "orderly selling" of campus buildings and eventual relocation in order to broaden the seminary's academic mission beyond granting theology degrees to…
RIGHT or WRONG?
Candidates broke records for campaign spending last fall. This seems like a terrific waste of money, especially all the attack ads. If you could take all that money and channel it to gospel causes, how would you spend it? Look…
OPINION: Finding a Bible that fits
I wandered into the Bible section at a Borders' going-out-of-business sale and thought, "I need more choices." Fortunately, the publishers are looking out for me. On Ash Wednesday, new translations of the New International Version (the most popular evangelical version)…
New IMB chief insists he has ‘no intention of being an interim’
DALLAS — International Mission Board trustees elected as president of the missions agency Tom Elliff — a 67-year-old longtime Oklahoma pastor, one-time missionary and former president of the Southern Baptist Convention. And despite his age, Elliff insists he has "no…
Baptist leader says 3/11 will be Japan’s 9/11
ATLANTA (ABP) — A Japanese Baptist leader predicted the March 11 earthquake and tsunami disaster would leave its mark on Japan the same way that America was changed after the terrorist attacks on 9/11. "3/11 will be etched on our…
D.C. convention delays vote on exec
WASHINGTON (ABP) — Executive Board members of the District of Columbia Baptist Convention delayed a vote on affirming the nomination of executive director candidate Ricky Creech March 14 because several of them had not received adequate information prior to the…
A former Catholic returns to Ash Wednesday Mass
By David Gushee Last Wednesday, I attended my first Ash Wednesday Mass since…. Well, actually, though I grew up Catholic, I have no memory of ever having attended an Ash Wednesday service. While these days I feel more happily Baptist…
Some foreign aid helps, others do more harm than good, experts assert
Even though the Green Bay Packers won this year’s Super Bowl 31-25, up to 100,000 individuals in developing countries are wearing new T-shirts erroneously labeling the losing Pittsburgh Steelers as NFL champions. For marketing purposes, the NFL preprinted memorabilia for…