Leland developing 'virtual campus.' The John Leland Center for Theological Studies in Falls Church, Va., is in the process of developing a new “virtual campus,” thanks to $267,000 in donations — including an anonymous gift of $200,000, the second largest…
Baptists in Central Virginia focus on ways to end global human trafficking
RICHMOND, Va. — An April 30 awareness event sponsored by International Justice Ministries, the Richmond Justice Initiative and First Baptist Church in Richmond, Va., drew dozens of people from Central Virginia to focus on human trafficking. The day’s activities included…
US / World Briefs
Religious freedom ambassador sworn in. Suzan Johnson Cook, an American Baptist pastor, author and motivational speaker, was sworn in May 16 as Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom by Undersecretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs Maria Otero. Johnson Cook…
NC Briefs
Causey to retire. Jack Causey will retire at the end of May as director of services to ministers at the Center for Congregational Health in Winston-Salem, N.C., a position he has held since 1996. Causey, who will continue as ministerial…
EDITORIAL: The awful truth of an awful place
From the soaring heights of the Bavarian alps, we visited Neuschwanstein castle’s classical beauty. Our travels then took us to the Concentration Camp Memorial at Dachau on Sunday, May 22. Since the International Baptist Church’s English service was scheduled to…
Unlikely allies weave myth of Christian America, historian says
DALLAS — A seemingly unlikely alliance between conservative Christian evangelicals and Mormons recasts American history as the founding of a distinctively Christian republic, Stephen Stookey told a gathering of Baptist church historians. Self-styled historian David Barton and conservative provocateur Glenn…
Three die at Joplin, Mo., church hit by tornado that tears across Midwest
JOPLIN, Mo. (ABP) — At least two Missouri Baptist churches are among the scores of institutions, businesses and homes destroyed when one of 68 reported tornadoes that swept across the Midwest on Sunday struck Joplin. (See related story here.) News…
Scholar finds Gardner-Webb open to diversity
BOILING SPRINGS, N.C. (ABP) – A predominantly white Baptist college in rural North Carolina might seem an unlikely place to find an urban African-American pastor from California known for an agenda of prophetic justice, but Gardner-Webb University just said goodbye…
LETTER: The BJC, ultra-liberals do more damage than atheists
The information that the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty has declared the National Day of Prayer as unwise and unnecessary [Herald, May 12] reminds us of the old phrase, “We have met the enemy, and they is us.” We…
VITAL SIGNS: Traps for clergy and their new congregation
In a recent conversation, a minister asked me what I thought were the major traps that most often snared ministers when they moved to a new congregation. Great question! Healthy churches and ministers pay attention to potential trouble spots and…
OUT LOUD
“I am being faithful to Jesus by welcoming the stranger into the community. … We are two different faiths building relationships, talking together, working together for a common purpose.” Dennis Perry The pastor of Aldersgate United Methodist Church in Alexandria,…
As need for child care declined, a church refocused ministry on seniors
RURAL HALL, N.C. — Making a tough decision to close its day care center after 20 years prompted a small North Carolina church to establish a center for senior adults in Rural Hall, N.C., a mid-state area with a high…