As your building committee journeys through the program workshops with your architect, a concurrent exercise should include a comprehensive look at existing facilities. Know what you have! An existing facilities condition survey conducted by your architect is an invaluable tool…
OUT LOUD
“All the recent attention to bullying helped us realize that we need to equip kids to live out biblical tolerance and grace while treating their neighbors as they’d like to be treated, whether they agree with them or not.” Alan…
VITAL SIGNS: A good word about preaching
Healthy churches hear good preaching. Few would disagree with such a statement. However, the definition of good preaching is about as easy to agree upon as is good taste in fashion. Our definition of good preaching usually reflects our point…
EDITORIAL: Judging is harder than it seems
Have you been following the news? The tiny group calling itself a church (71 members as of 2008) made up mostly of the pastor’s extended family, has made it all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States….
Who are evangelicals?
(ABP) — When evangelist Billy Graham, social activist Jim Wallis, pastor Rick Warren, theologian Al Mohler and author Brian McLaren all can fit under the umbrella term “evangelical,” some theological and cultural observers wonder if the term has lost its…
Moderate Baptists uneasy about evangelical baggage
(ABP) — Are supporters of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Mainstream Baptist groups evangelicals? The answer is yes and no. Formed in reaction to the Southern Baptist Convention’s shift to the far right in the late 1980s and early 1990s, both…
Definitions of ‘evangelical’ vary
(ABP) — The National Association of Evangelicals and Christian researcher George Barna offer two definitions of the term "evangelical." The National Association of Evangelicals has a seven-point statement of faith. Members affirm they believe: • The Bible is the inspired,…
Congregations struggle to become diverse, retain diversity
WACO, Texas (ABP) — More than a half-century after Martin Luther King Jr., declared 11 a.m. on Sunday the most segregated hour in America, nine in 10 congregations still have a single racial group that accounts for more than 80 percent…
California Baptists advise churches to add marriage definition to bylaws
FRESNO, Calif. (ABP) — The California Southern Baptist Convention is offering advice that churches revise their bylaws to anticipate possible changes in the legal definition of marriage. An article on the convention website advises that "a simple bylaw amendment can…
LifeWay background-check service finds hundreds of felonies
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) — Discounted criminal-background checks offered by LifeWay Christian Resources found more than 600 felony offenses in checks for the 900-plus churches and organizations that have purchased the service in its first two years. Since contracting with backgroundchecks.com…
Who are evangelicals? Some wonder if the term has lost its meaning
When evangelist Billy Graham, social activist Jim Wallis, pastor Rick Warren, theologian Al Mohler and author Brian McLaren all can fit under the umbrella term “evangelical,” some theological and cultural observers wonder if the term has lost its meaning. And…
Definitions of “evangelical” vary
The National Association of Evangelicals has a seven-point statement of faith. Members affirm they believe: • The Bible is the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative word of God. • There is one God, eternally existent in three persons—Father, Son and…