LAS VEGAS (ABP) — NBA players are glamorized for hardwood highlights and lifestyles of money, honeys and hip-hop swagger. But on Sunday morning of All-Star weekend in Las Vegas — the NBA's biggest bash in America's premier party city —…
CBF council reports declining revenues, adopts new budget
DECATUR, Ga. (ABP) — Halfway through their fiscal year, leaders of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship were informed of a significant revenue shortfall for the organization during the CBF Coordinating Council meeting Feb. 16 in Decatur, Ga. Undesignated receipts were 13.2…
Covenant most important Baptist event since Civil War, organizer tells CBF
DECATUR, Ga. (ABP) — Next January's “Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant” will be the most important Baptist event since before the Civil War, an emotional Jimmy Allen told Cooperative Baptist Fellowship leaders Feb. 16. Allen, the last moderate to…
California pastor challenges colleagues to move beyond ‘church’ to unbelievers
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (ABP) — Unlike most pastors, Erwin McManus is more comfortable talking to people outside the church than he is to rooms full of Christians — like the ones at the North Carolina Baptist State Convention's evangelism conference Feb….
Tolerance, not uniformity, needed to keep SBC together, leaders told
JACKSON, Tenn. (ABP) — Dissatisfaction brewing within the Southern Baptist Convention “could re-ignite a battle we don't want to fight again,” David Dockery warned fellow denominational leaders at a conference on Baptist identity. The need for greater unity among Southern…
SBC leaders acknowledge Baptist bloggers here to stay
JACKSON, Tenn. (ABP) — Like it or not, Baptist bloggers are here to stay, according to speakers at a conference on Baptist identity. And those who want to bring healing to the Southern Baptist Convention should listen to the critique…
Will associations, conventions become denominational relics?
JACKSON, Tenn. (ABP) — Baptist state conventions and associations will soon cease to exist as they are currently structured, according to Mike Day, the director of missions for the Mid-South Baptist Association in Memphis. “A new paradigm is on the…
Kansas education board again revokes norms that questioned evolution
TOPEKA, Kan. (ABP) — Kansas' state Board of Education has yet again reversed itself on standards for science teaching, removing the questioning of evolution from recommended state curricula. By a 6-4 vote Feb. 14, the panel served another volley in…
N.C. pastor returns to Vietnam to evangelize his homeland
GREENSBORO, N.C. (ABP) — One North Carolina Baptist pastor isn't content simply to reach out to his fellow Vietnamese living in the United States. “God has opened the doors in Vietnam, allowing the gospel to be shared, and there have…
Bruce Metzger, Greek scholar responsible for NRSV, dies
PRINCETON, N.J. (ABP) — Bruce Metzger, who was perhaps the 20th century's preeminent New Testament Greek scholar, has died at age 93. The retired seminary professor reportedly died of natural causes in Princeton, N.J., Feb. 13. Metzger helped translate both…
Baptists’ post-Katrina efforts in Louisiana still underway
LACOMBE, La. (ABP) — It's been a long road for the home of Loretta and Samuel Ducre of Lacombe, La. Their original home is gone — destroyed in August 2005 when Hurricane Katrina mauled the Gulf coast — and its…
Carson-Newman president resigns amid turmoil, becomes Mercer VP
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. (ABP) — James Netherton, the embattled president of Carson-Newman College, is resigning from the Baptist-affiliated school to become executive vice president of Mercer University. Netherton, president of Carson-Newman since 2000, has been under pressure in recent months….