By Vicki Brown “I want to be a good grandmother (father) but I want to live my life, too.” The refrain echoes around the country as more grandparents assume responsibility for their grandchildren. One in 10 children lives with a…
Churches can help grandparents
By Vicki Brown “The church building is not a monument. It’s an instrument for God,” Timothy Williams, pastor of Bethsaida Missionary Baptist Church in Mexia, Texas, believes. His wife, Cheryl, director of apartment ministries for Buckner International, is praying her church…
Fire destroys Windermere lodge
By Vicki Brown A fire apparently sparked by a mechanical failure in a dryer unit destroyed a 46-bed lodge before dawn July 22 at Windermere Baptist Conference Center in Roach, Mo. The 7,200-foot Whispering Oak Lodge was one of 13…
Reading the Bible in pink and blue
By Vicki Brown Does God have prescribed roles for men and women, and does he require those roles to be filled in specific ways? Many evangelicals, including Baptists, are divided into two camps on this issue – “complementarian” and “egalitarian.”…
Women seek God’s will at home, church
By Vicki Brown Married nearly five years, Courtney Fenton of Hannibal, Mo., wanted to be married but wasn’t sure she wanted to have children. But the day she married, “something switched” in her brain and the desire for little ones…
Baptist school names president
By Vicki Brown Anthony Allen, a 44-year-old administrator at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary has been named 17th president of Baptist-affiliated Hannibal-LaGrange University in Missouri. Allen, senior vice president for administration and chief administrative officer at the Southern Baptist Convention seminary…
Woman follows father into pulpit
By Vicki Brown A Southern Baptist church in Missouri is under scrutiny by its local association for replacing a pastor who resigned for health reasons with his daughter. Melody Pryor, pastor of First Baptist Church of Stanton, Mo., said she…
Merging churches across racial lines demands work
Churchnet builds collaboration
By Vicki Brown At a time when many denominations are waning, the head of a breakaway 10-year-old Baptist state convention in Missouri believes “genuine” collaboration will keep congregations working together. “The vision we have … is to try to create…