DALLAS (ABP) — Religious liberty in China is expanding and the Chinese Christian community is growing, according to a leader of China's state-sanctioned church — but American observers continue to hope for more progress. Bao Jiayuan, associate general secretary of…
Louisiana Senate panel shelves guns-in-church bill
BATON ROUGE, La. (ABP) — A Louisiana Senate committee has shelved a controversial bill that would have allowed worshipers to carry concealed weapons inside churches, synagogues and other houses of worship. The state’s Senate Judiciary B Committee voted 3-0 June…
Former Rwandan Baptist pastor convicted of genocide
HELSINKI, Finland (ABP) – A Finnish court has sentenced a former Baptist pastor to life in prison for participating in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, according to the British Broadcasting Corporation. Francois Bazaramba, 59, was a pastor of the Baptist church in…
Missionaries from global South to North face hurdles, speaker says
EDINBURGH, Scotland (ABP) — While Christianity's center of gravity has shifted southward in the past century from Europe and North America, missionaries from the global South are still not welcome as full partners in global evangelism, an African missionary to…
HERITAGE: Return to Mount Hermon
Sixty years ago George H. Lawrence, who was the first full-time pastor of old Mount Hermon Baptist Church in Chesterfield, adjusted his tie, cleared his throat and began to give a radio address over WXGI in Richmond. He was broadcasting…
SBC Executive Committee elects Page as president in executive session
ORLANDO, Fla. (ABP) — The Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention voted in executive session June 14 to elect former SBC President Frank Page as the organization’s next president and CEO, replacing Morris Chapman, who retires Sept. 30 after…
Popular Southern Seminary pastoral-care prof Andy Lester dies
FORT WORTH, Texas (ABP) — Andy Lester, a professor of pastoral care and counseling popular with a generation of Baptists who attended Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in the 1970s and 1980s, died June 10 after a year-long battle with pancreatic…
Black Baptists donate $500,000 for Humanity for housing in Haiti
ATLANTA (ABP) — The presidents of five historically African-American Baptist denominations have presented a check for $500,000 to Habitat for Humanity International to help rebuild homes destroyed in Haiti by January's earthquake. The contribution, the largest single donation given by…
Black Baptist groups donate $500,000 to Habitat to build houses in Haiti
ATLANTA (ABP) — The presidents of five historically African-American Baptist denominations have presented a check for $500,000 to Habitat for Humanity International to help rebuild homes destroyed in Haiti by January's earthquake. From left, Robert Murray, Lott Carey Foreign Mission…
Global Baptists ministering at World Cup soccer tourney
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (ABP) — For most of the globe outside the United States, it’s like the Super Bowl plus the NCAA Basketball Tournament plus the World Series plus the Olympics, all in one event. And Baptists in South Africa…
Baptist preacher gets 12 years for distributing child porn
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (ABP) — A former Baptist pastor and volunteer police chaplain has been sentenced to more than 12 years in prison for distributing child pornography. Bernard Squires Bernard Squires, 65, of rural Columbia City, Ind., pleaded guilty March…
Baptist youth group survives crash on mission trip in Kentucky
SILER, Ky. (ABP) — A youth mission trip from a Southern Baptist church in Georgia took a terrifying turn June 9 when a van carrying 13 passengers crashed head-on into a semi-trailer coal truck on a rain-slicked highway in eastern…