CARY, N.C. (ABP) — With income trailing last year's gifts by 3.2 percent or $647,000 through seven months, the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina has laid off three people and eliminated six positions, effective immediately. Two of the…
Anderson helps homeless ‘get back on their feet’ in North Carolina
SCOTLAND NECK, N.C. (ABP) — James walked in Union Mission’s building with purpose. He stood tall, proud but worried. His shift had been eliminated and now he didn’t have a job or a place to live. He spent the previous…
NAMB trustees name acting interim president
Longtime NAMB staff member Richard Harris was named acting interim president Aug. 12. ALPHARETTA, Ga. (ABP) — North American Mission Board trustees on Aug. 12 named Richard Harris, the organization's senior strategist for missions advancement, as acting interim president…
BWA presentation on church and gays reveals differing regional approaches
EDE, Netherlands (ABP) — A friendly debate about the Bible, human sexuality and the church’s response to the advance of gay rights during the Baptist World Alliance’s recent annual gathering revealed differences between some in the developing world and some…
Cecil Sherman to receive freedom award — again
RICHMOND (ABP) — Exactly one year to the day after honoring Cecil Sherman with its Religious Freedom Award in a private presentation in a Houston hospital room where the prominent Baptist leader was fighting for his life, Associated Baptist Press…
Christ at the center of life
By David Gushee I have spent much of the summer reading the massive Fortress Press critical edition of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Ethics. Insights drawn from that reading will show up in this column now and again in days to come. Here’s…
Faith groups begin media blitz for health care reform
WASHINGTON (ABP) — President Obama will participate in a national call-in and audio webcast on health reform with religious leaders Aug. 19. Faith leaders made the announcement Aug. 10 in a conference call with reporters. It is one of several…
NEW BAPTIST COVENANT: Baptists challenged to overcome racial barriers
NORMAN, Okla. (ABP) — If they hope to represent Christ in the world, Baptists must find a "better way" of relating than the racism that has marred their witness for most of the past two centuries, participants in a multicultural…
NEW BAPTIST COVENANT: Oklahoma governor says faith sustained family
NORMAN, Okla. (ABP) — In rare public comments about religion, Oklahoma's Democratic governor told a Baptist gathering Aug. 7 that his Christian faith got him through personal loss two decades ago when an infant daughter died of a rare neuromuscular…
NEW BAPTIST COVENANT: Carter planning return trip to Gaza
NORMAN, Okla. (ABP) — Former President Jimmy Carter said Aug. 7 he is planning a return trip to Gaza in an effort to focus international attention on what he describes as a humanitarian crisis. Carter, who sparked controversy in June…
Great Commission website launched
A website encouraging support for the Southern Baptist Convention's Great Commission Resurgence Task Force has been launched at www.pray4gcr.com. The site, which went live Aug. 1, gives interested people an opportunity to register their commitment to pray, interact with the…
Funeral of girl killed in bus crash to be webcast live
SHREVEPORT, La. (ABP) — People from around the world who went online to read about and pray for a 12-year-old victim of a church-bus crash during the last three weeks of her life will also be able to watch her…