DALLAS (BP) — In what might be arguably the most significant meeting yet for the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force, 22 executive directors of Southern Baptist state conventions met with them Oct. 27, to offer some competing, some complementing views…
Bluefield College academic exchange with China to benefit students, community
As part of its mission to prepare innovative learners, Bluefield College will offer its students an opportunity to learn firsthand the Chinese culture, history and language, thanks to a new international exchange program with the Jiangsu Institute of Education in…
HopeTree provides a new academic home for some Roanoke Valley students
SALEM — Students formerly attending the Roland E. Cook Alternative Education Center in Roanoke County have found a new home, academically speaking. On Oct. 8, Roanoke County Schools and HopeTree Family Services agreed to a five-year contract in which HopeTree…
20 cents for 20-somethings: Making sense of stewardship for young adults
You’ve finally graduated college! Now your most pressing reminder of those university days is the looming debt of student loans. But fast forward into the years just ahead. You need a car! But what can you afford? You’re getting married!…
Charles Ryland, former BGAV, president, dies
WARSAW, Va. — Charles Hill Ryland, a former president of the Baptist General Association of Virginia with deep roots in Virginia Baptist life, died Oct. 22 at age 95. Ryland, a longtime member of Warsaw Baptist Church, was BGAV president…
D.C. set to become 6th jurisdiction in U.S. with legal same-sex marriage
WASHINGTON (ABP) — The District of Columbia Council voted overwhelmingly — and despite vocal protests from a coalition of conservative evangelicals and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington — to legalize same-sex marriage in the nation’s capital Dec. 15. Anthony…
National race track chaplaincy group to relocate to Kentucky
GEORGETOWN, Ky. (ABP) — A national chaplaincy group that ministers to the horse-racing community is moving from California to Kentucky at the beginning of 2010. Race Track Chaplaincy of America Executive Director Enrique Torres (center right) shakes hands with Georgetown…
CBF leader says ministry-exellence training can boost clergy’s image
ATLANTA (ABP) — A moderate Baptist leader says a recent poll showing public confidence in clergy at a three-decade low should be a wakeup call for the importance of maintaining excellence in ministry. "In a culture that qualifies success as…
Baptists celebrate 50 years in Vietnam
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam (BP) — Shortly before the fall of Saigon in 1975, Le Quoc Chanh, pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City), came with his wife and young son to the home…
OUT LOUD
“Singling out minarets in this ban is tantamount to isolating Islam and relegating it to second-class status.” Al Mohler The president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., was blogging about the recent vote in Switzerland to ban construction…
HERITAGE: In the swamps of Southampton
Lights — flickering candles inside Mason jars — shone in the darkness in the backcountry of Southampton County. The luminaries let visitors know they had arrived at Hebron Baptist Church and helped guide footsteps to the front doors of the…
Baptist state convention budgets feeling effects of shaky economy
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) — Feeling the effects of a bad economy, several Southern Baptist Convention-affiliated state and regional conventions reduced budgets in annual meetings, held in recent weeks across the nation. The Baptist General Convention of Texas, which includes 4,500…