STAFF CHANGES • Eric Durden, to Fairmount Memorial Church, Richmond, as pastor. • G. C. Hughes has concluded his ministry as pastor of Blackstone Church, Blackstone. • Don Williams, resigning as pastor of Calvary Church, Lynchburg, effective the end of…
CBF to commission 18 missionaries under new online cohort process
ATLANTA (ABP) – An innovative missionary-training process has produced 18 new Cooperative Baptist Fellowship missions personnel, who will be commissioned June 18 during the group's General Assembly in Memphis, Tenn. The appointees are the first to apply through CBF's new…
Longtime Baptist musician, seminary professor dies
ORANGE PARK, Fla. (ABP) — Longtime Baptist hymn writer and music professor Hugh McElrath passed away May 8 at his winter home in Penney Farms, Fla. He also resided in Louisville, Ky. He was 86. McElrath was a professor of…
Blogging Baptists: Blogs only latest battleground for historical Baptist contention
WASHINGTON (ABP) — One classic joke about Baptists is that wherever two or three are gathered, there are four opinions among them. The same can probably be said of bloggers, and Baptists seem to have taken to the blog medium…
Blogging Baptists: As many motivations for blogging as there are bloggers
DALLAS (ABP) — For some people, blogs are like a family reunion where people barely know each other. There's a lot of talking going on, but there's little agreement on much of anything. But for many of the increasing number…
Blogging Baptists: Guidelines for ethical blogging? Start with the New Testament
(ABP) — The New Testament book of James compares the tongue to raging fire and a wild beast that cannot be tamed. And the author of that book never was “flamed” on a blog, in a chat room or on…
Baptists mobilize relief efforts after Mother’s Day tornadoes
(ABP) – Various Baptist disaster-relief groups began mobilizing chainsaw teams and feeding units May 12 to assist victims of deadly tornadoes that tore across the Midwest and Southeast Mother's Day weekend. The storms claimed the lives of at least 22…
Mix of politics, religion inevitable, but all blends not equal, scholar says
ABILENE, Texas (ABP) — Religion and politics inevitably will mix — especially in the U.S. presidential campaign — but that does not mean Americans should sanction a free-for-all, church-state expert Melissa Rogers insisted. Rogers, director of the Center for Religion…
Faith-in-schools debate best handled in local communities, Rogers says
ABILENE, Texas (ABP) — Whatever the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately decides about the role of religion in public schools, communities should strive to have better conversations on the topic, Melissa Rogers told participants at the T.B. Maston Christian Ethics Lectures…
Children from FLDS compound praise Texas Baptist agency
SAN ANGELO, Texas (ABP) — Although Texas officials have taken some criticism for removing hundreds of children from a religious compound, the Baptist agency caring for them has earned praise from the most important people: the children themselves. Baptist Child…
Surprise move at Two Rivers Baptist reverses vote, ousts dissidents
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) — One week after an effort to oust 71 members of Two Rivers Baptist Church failed by four votes, the Nashville megachurch voted again and this time removed the dissidents on a show-of-hands vote. The congregation was…
Iowa church, CBF commit to S.D. Indian reservation
ATLANTA (ABP) — Until last summer, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship didn't have much of a ministry presence in Buffalo County, S.D. Leaders from Together for Hope, CBF's rural-poverty initiative that works in 20 of America's poorest counties, had identified the…