Staff Changes William Attaway is now serving as pastor of Southview Church, Herndon. Allan D. McConnell Jr., to Lael Church, Lignum, as pastor. Jason Sanders, to Groveton Church, Alexandria, as interim minister of music. George Davis,retiring as church administrator at…
Author probes Thanksgiving’s ‘deep religious impulses’
With its celebration of bounty and goodwill, not to mention its endearing lack of commercialization, Thanksgiving may be the most beloved of American holidays. But is the Thanksgiving Americans celebrate today mere myth-making, resting on ahistorical stereotypes? Take the fabled…
BGCT messengers support Wade despite handling of Valley scandal
Rank-and-file Texas Baptists are sad and angry about the financial scandal in the Rio Grande Valley that has marred their reputation, but most say they still trust their leaders—including executive director Charles Wade—to correct abuses and restore confidence in the…
FIRST HAND: Baptist secretaries find fellowship through national organization
The officers of the Baptist Ministry Assistants of Virginia were in attendance at the National Association of Southern Baptist Secretaries Leadership Conference, hosted in Orlando, Fla., on Nov. 1-4. President Sandy Weakley, vice president of membership Nancy Wicker, vice president…
Anne Davis, social-work pioneer, dies; had deep Virginia Baptist ties
Anne Davis, a renowned Baptist social worker with deep ties to Virginia Baptist life, died Nov. 9. She was 69. Born in Baskerville, Va., Davis grew up in a rural farming community. After earning degrees from Averett College, Westhampton College…
N.C. Baptists reject bylaw changes giving colleges, others more freedom
Messengers to the annual North Carolina Baptist state convention meeting struck down proposed bylaw changes that would have given convention-related institutions more influence over the appointment of trustees and directors. The proposed amendments, more than a year in the making…
N.C. Baptists adopt strictist policy against gay-friendly churches
Baptist churches in North Carolina will have to deny membership to gays or face expulsion from the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina. Messengers to the convention's annual meeting voted Nov. 14 to add language to its governing documents that…
Tennessee Baptists will ask leaders if they affirm SBC’s faith statement
Tennessee Baptists voted overwhelmingly Nov. 14 to publicize whether nominees to leadership posts in the convention affirm the Baptist Faith and Message, a controversial confession of faith adopted by the national Southern Baptist Convention. Messengers to Tennessee Baptist Convention's annual…
ABC General Board confirms decisions to sell headquarters, elect missions head
VALLEY FORGE, Pa. (ABP) — Leaders of the American Baptist Churches USA have approved selling the “Holy Doughnut” — the organization's Pennsylvania headquarters building — and confirmed the appointment of a new head for the denomination's international missions organization. The…
Opinion: Elections signal centrist turn
In the aftermath of the epochal power shift in Washington, the pundits are already attempting to interpret the deeper meaning of what happened. Inevitably, one's reading of the election tea leaves is filtered through one's own ideological perspective. Thus conservatives,…
Opinion: ‘The truth shall make you odd’
As we await the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group about what “to do” in Iraq, I can't help but be struck by the poverty of our imaginations. Just what, if anything, can we do to shore up the new…
SBC leader says Christians can be good lobbyists despite ‘seductions’
WASHINGTON (ABP) — Christians can be lobbyists and still maintain a clean conscience, as long as they generally believe in what they're peddling, said Southern Baptist professor Mark Coppenger. Coppenger, professor of apologetics at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville,…