BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (ABP) — Three former college students convicted of setting fire to nine Baptist churches in rural Alabama were sentenced to prison April 9. They must also pay millions in restitution and perform community service for their crime. Matthew…
Clippard, embattled Missouri Baptist exec, fired in closed-door session
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (ABP) — David Clippard, embattled executive director of the Missouri Baptist Convention, was fired April 10 by the convention's Executive Board. Following a second closed-door meeting about Clippard's leadership within six months, Executive Board members voted 44-7…
GOP presidential race again features faith, but new dynamics
WASHINGTON (ABP) — With Democratic front-runners talking openly about evangelical-style conversion experiences and Republicans lamenting that none of their top-tier candidates are bona fide social conservatives, experts say the 2008 presidential campaign may rewrite political playbooks on the role of…
Prominent professor accused of fraudulently investing millions
COLUMBIA, S.C. (ABP) – An economics professor at a South Carolina Baptist university was charged with fraud April 5, after federal authorities discovered $134 million missing from investment funds he managed. The academic has since claimed amnesia and reportedly checked…
OPINION: Iraq deadline debate proves morally difficult to resolve
The Democratic-led Congress and the Bush White House may be heading toward a train wreck over recently passed legislation setting a goal of withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq by March 2008. This was entirely predictable, but as the impasse deepens,…
Newlyweds trade rural Kentucky for adventurous life in New Orleans
CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. — James Welch and Amy Bradley-Welch are quite the adventurous couple. Newlyweds, they graduated in 2006 from a small, rural Baptist college and immediately headed to the raucous, easy-living city on the bayou: New Orleans. Now the Campbellsville…
Latino Network sponsors trip
The Latino Network of Virginia Baptists will sponsor up to 10 Latino youth from Virginia to attend the 2008 Baptist Youth World Conference in Leipzig, Germany, to be held July 30-Aug. 3 The conference will involve youth in fellowship, worship,…
Top 100 Virginia churches in per capita CM gifts
First Baptist Church in Gretna led the state last year in per capita contributions to Cooperative Missions. Rounding out the top 10 in per capita giving were First Baptist Church, Gretna; Journey Baptist Church, Roanoke; Leetown Baptist Church, Kearneysville; Atlantic…
A week in the life
Other buildings say that no one will ever read my journal, but I still keep writing because even a pile of bricks has dreams. I know Virginia Baptists care about missions and about stewardship, so my dream is that the…
Longtime Ga. Baptist communicator Diane Reasoner killed in car crash
DULUTH, Ga. (ABP) — A longtime employee of the Georgia Baptist Convention died in a car accident April 1 in Atlanta. Communications specialist Diane Reasoner, 57, had worked with the Georgia convention for 20 years. She and her husband, Richard,…
Growth in a small town
Darrell Henry, senior pastor of Oakwood Baptist Church (www.oakwoodbc.org) in Chickamauga, Ga., will be one of the featured breakout session presenters for the Virginia Baptist Mission Board's upcoming Pastor-Deacon-Church Leadership Retreat at Eagle Eyrie Baptist Conference Center, May 11-12. Recently,…
Former leader Lyons, now paroled, rejected by National Baptist group
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (ABP) — Henry Lyons, the disgraced pastor and convicted felon who campaigned to become president of the Florida General Baptist Convention, was rejected April 4 by delegates at the state convention's annual meeting. Attendees at the meeting…