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…
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…
CBF, Haitian Baptists sign three-year agreement for earthquake recovery
ATLANTA (ABP) — As part of its ongoing earthquake response efforts in Haiti, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has signed a memorandum of understanding — representing an official partnership — with the Convention Baptiste d’Haiti. Emmanuel Pierre, general secretary of the…
Connecticut school board to appeal graduation ruling after all
ENFIELD, Conn. (ABP) — A Connecticut school board voted June 8 to appeal a federal judge's ruling that holding high-school graduation ceremonies at a local church is unconstitutional, reversing a vote a week earlier to lay the matter to rest….
VITAL SIGNS: Discomfort: Good or bad?
Here at the Center for Congregational Health, we spend many hours each week helping clergy and congregations navigate the tricky waters of expectations and living together in positive and encouraging relationships rather than confrontational ones. I’ve recently had three insights…