HIDEAWAY, Texas (ABP) — Baptist churches, sometimes known for holding endless committee meetings and forming factions pitted against each other for slight offences, could learn a thing or two from Trinity Baptist Church of the former Saigon, Vietnam. According to…
Drake won’t repeat as SBC 2nd VP but won’t rule out higher office
BUENA PARK, Calif. (ABP) — Wiley Drake, the Los Angeles-area pastor, radio crusader and Southern Baptist Convention gadfly, has announced he will not allow himself to be nominated for a second term as second vice president of the convention. The…
Missouri pastor named director of ministerial excellence at CBF
ATLANTA — Steve Graham, pastor of Second Baptist Church in Liberty, Mo., has been named director of ministerial excellence for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. He will assume the new role in June. The initiative for ministerial excellence is funded by…
Huckabee cancels Covenant speech over Jimmy Carter’s criticism of Bush
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (ABP) — Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has cancelled plans to speak at the New Baptist Covenant Celebration next January because of organizer Jimmy Carter's recent criticism of President Bush. Carter criticized Bush's foreign policy in a…
Missouri conservatives organize against their former movement
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (ABP) — Eleven ministers who supported conservatives' efforts to take control of the Missouri Baptist Convention now say that the people they put in power have taken conservatism too far. The group voiced its concerns publicly in…
Updated: Carter meets with SBC bloggers, who welcome gesture
ATLANTA (ABP) — Some of the Southern Baptist Convention's most prominent bloggers reacted positively to a summit they held with former President Jimmy Carter May 17 in Atlanta. Carter and the leaders discussed building a broad range of Baptist support…
Does Gore trump Gideons at hotel?
SAN FRANCISCO (RNS)—Reports that Al Gore has replaced God—at least in one California hotel—have been greatly exaggerated, the hotel's developer said. The Gaia Napa Valley Hotel and Spa, located 35 miles north of San Francisco, made headlines after a media…
FAITH DIGEST
CHRISTIAN WORSHIP EXPERT WEBBER DIES. Robert Webber, an influential expert on Christian worship, died April 27 in Sawyer, Mich., after suffering from pancreatic cancer. He was 73. Webber, a professor of ministry at Northern Seminary in Lombard, Ill., the last…
Woven together
The drive to weave ties among local churches is housed deep in the Baptist DNA, some observers of denominational life say. It's an instinct almost as visceral as another, often competing, Baptist charactertistic — a fierce independence of thought and…
Trustees soften controversial IMB policies
KANSAS CITY, MO. (ABP) — Controversial policies for missionaries on baptism and speaking in tongues were slightly softened—but not revoked—by trustees of the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board May 8. The trustees, meeting in Kansas City, approved an ad…
Networks: New label or a new way for churches to relate
Some associations of churches call themselves “networks” now. And their directors of missions insist it's more than just a trendy change in terminology. As missions director for a West Texas area that included both Midland and Odessa Baptist associations, Wayne…
Baylor professor becomes Catholic, resigns as head of evangelical group
WACO, Texas—Renowned evangelical philosopher Francis Beckwith has become a Roman Catholic and, as a result, has resigned as president—and also as a member—of the Evangelical Theological Society. Beckwith, associate professor of church-state studies at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, said…