NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) — Claire McKeever, a Baylor University graduate studying for the ministry at Vanderbilt Divinity School, preaches that worship isn’t just for the soul. McKeever teaches NIA, Neuromuscular Integrative Action, at the Green Hills YMCA in Nashville, Tenn….
Poverty-medicine clinic preaches the gospel of fitness
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (ABP) — Fitness can, literally, be a life-and-death issue for people in underprivileged communities. So a Christian medical ministry in one of the nation’s poorest big cities is preaching the gospel of fitness through local churches. Minister and…
Faith & Fitness: Exercise good, but only in moderation
NEW YORK (ABP) — The sixth chapter of First Corinthians describes the body as “a temple of the Holy Spirit.” For many Christians that means what they do with their body matters to God, including physical fitness. A few, however,…
South Africa to host continent’s first Baptist World Congress in 2015
HONOLULU (ABP) — For the first time, the Baptist World Congress will be held in Africa in 2015, according to a July 27 announcement from Baptist World Alliance General Secretary Neville Callam. Speaking on the eve of the 20th Baptist…
Secularization, Australia, and us
By David Gushee Sometimes the best way to understand one’s own culture is to leave it, which I have done to teach a course this week at Morling College, a fine Baptist institution here in metropolitan Sydney. My most unexpected…
Planting churches that take root requires right processes, right people
Christ’s Great Commission—to share the gospel with people of every language, nationality and culture—calls Christians to find ways to penetrate unreached areas. Planting new churches in places where none exists, or in specific cultural contexts, can result in changed lives…
How should church starters measure success?
Andrew Daugherty sees success where others might only have glimpsed failure when Christ Church Baptist in Rockwall, Texas, ceased to exist as a congregation four years after it launched. Should the death of a new church be considered a failure? That…
Homeowners weigh morality of walking out on mortgages
ORLANDO, Fla. (RNS)—Lynn Thompson quit paying the mortgage on her investment property—not because she couldn’t afford the payments, but because she thinks walking away is better for her long-term financial health. trategic defaults on home mortgages accounted for 31 percent…
RIGHT or WRONG? Repenting of racism
Many years ago, an African-American man attended our church by climbing the bell tower to listen to worship. He is buried eight feet outside church property but not in the church cemetery, according to the church’s policy at the time…
Churches start their own humanitarian aid agencies
WASHINGTON (RNS)—Members of Metro Community Church in Englewood, N.J., support the missionaries sent by their denomination, the Evangelical Covenant Church, to the Congo, but Africa is a distant and dangerous trip from the 400-member flock. “We can’t send our short-term…
Musician teaches young girls that modest is hottest
NASHVILLE, Tenn.—As Jaime Jamgochian performs concerts and leads worship around the country, she communicates to teenage girls messages about modesty, purity and self-worth. “I really want young girls to be who God created them to be and to believe that…
Common denominator for new churches: They all need funds
Regardless of the method or process used to start them, all new church plants have one thing in common — the need for money. Sometimes a church planter will raise enough money through individual donations or start with a handful…