During my teen years Les Schwemer was the pastor of my home church, Emmanuel Baptist in rural Amherst County. He served small rural churches in Virginia his entire ministry. He retired from Sycamore Baptist in Woolwine. It was a great…
SBC resolution commends, cautions Obama
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Southern Baptists both commended President Barack Obama and expressed opposition to some of his policies in a resolution passed June 24 at their annual meeting in Louisville. A resolution commending Obama for his “evident love for his…
VIRGINIA BAPTIST FORUM: Policies don’t hold water
How ironic that the recognition of baptismal rites that use less water would be considered “a watering down” of baptism and a church’s membership policy [“Opening up without watering down,” Herald, June 18]. It is also interesting to me that…
Shuttered stores find new life as churches
HUNTLEY, Ill. (RNS) — At Prime Outlets in Huntley, Ill., a former fine china store will become the home of Christian Life Church. “This provided an opportunity, from moving from being kind of a homeless church, if you will, to…
ABCUSA delegates reject bylaw changes
PASADENA, Calif. (ABP) — While celebrating the denomination’s broad ethnic, regional and language diversity at their biennial meeting June 26-28, members of the American Baptist Churches USA also exhibited their ideological diversity. Delegates, meeting in Pasadena, Calif., torpedoed a major…
RIGHT OR WRONG?
How can I share my Christian faith with my Muslim neighbor without offending him? If Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan today in America, he probably would tell the parable of the Good Muslim. The same types of…
Baptist school cancels mission trip for church dismissed from SBC
FORT WORTH, Texas (ABP) — A Kentucky Baptist university has, at the last minute, withdrawn its invitation to host a youth mission team from Texas after the Southern Baptist Convention disfellowshipped their church for its toleration of homosexuals. Brent Beasley,…
OUT LOUD
“The relationships that are being built mean everything. … When an evangelical Christian gets to know a Muslim, the whole defense of Islam has stepped up to a higher level because … you’re no longer talking about a religion. You’re…
Riverside pastor resigns after short tenure
NEW YORK (ABP) — A Baptist minister and former Wake Forest Divinity School professor has resigned just nine months after becoming senior pastor of New York’s Riverside Church, a historic congregation identified with the 20th-century Social Gospel movement that downplayed…
VIRGINIA BAPTIST FORUM: Quotes evoke comments
I comment on statements on four pages in the issue of July 2. Page 5: “What if another religion becomes the majority?” I assert that other religions have already become the majority: the worships of money, power, pleasure, status, possessions….
Moderator urges CBF to celebrate movement
HOUSTON (ABP) — Following a year of financial hardship, the moderator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellow-ship urged the group’s general assembly to celebrate the movement’s success and potential for the future. Jack Glasgow, pastor of Zebulon Baptist Church in Zebulon,…
SECOND OPINION: Fifty years as a pastor
April 20, 2010, will be a significant day in my life. It will mark the 50th anniversary of my ordination. Since January 1960 I have spent most of my days as a pastor. In September of 1974 I began my…