VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (ABP) — Virginia Baptists adopted a $14.2 million budget to fund their ministries in 2007 — a $100,000 increase over this year's budget goal. The 1,053 messengers attending the annual meeting of the Baptist General Association of…
N.C. Baptists adopt strictest policy against gay-friendly churches
GREENSBORO, N.C. (ABP) — 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…
Texas Baptists approve measures to ‘restore trust’ after Valley scandal
DALLAS (ABP) — “Together We Are Doing More” was the stated theme, but healing from financial scandal was the subtext that dominated the annual meeting of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Messengers to the Nov. 13-14 meeting elected officers,…
Anne Davis, social-work pioneer, dies in Waco, Texas
WACO, Texas (ABP) — Anne Davis, the renowned Baptist social worker, 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 at the University…
‘Inflated’ reports of new churches also mar Arango’s work in Mexico
DALLAS (ABP) — Otto Arango exported to Latin America the church-planting strategies he developed in South Texas. But some observers familiar with his work in Mexico say Arango — the central figure in an investigation that revealed misuse and mismanagement…
Piper Institute to discuss role of founder in Valley scandal
DALLAS (ABP) — A called meeting of the board of the Piper Institute for Church Planting was scheduled for Nov. 14 in Dallas to consider allegations of misuse and mismanagement of church-starting funds by the institute's founder, Otto Arango, and…
Top evangelical Haggard steps down after allegations from gay prostitute
Ted Haggard, head of the National Association of Evangelicals and a prominent opponent of gay rights, resigned Nov. 2, after a Colorado man came forward with allegations that Haggard paid him for sex and drugs. According to a Colorado Springs,…
Muslim group decries Baptist leader’s claims about Islamic ‘takeover’ of U.S.
Leaders from a prominent American Muslim group have denounced reported comments by the Missouri Baptist Convention's executive director claiming that “Islam has a strategic plan” to take over the United States. Ibrahim Hooper, communications director for the Washington-based Council on…
Are our churches getting what they need?
Business knows. If you fail to train people adequately they will fail to perform. Dow Jones understands this double failure isn't good for the bottom line. The military knows. Troops who don't understand how to use and fix sophisticated technological…
More support for Bluefield
Let me begin by thanking the Baptist General Association of Virginia for its past support of Bluefield College; not only in money, but in many other ways. It has indeed been a blessing. Recently I learned that a new funding…
Bluefield benefits Virginia Baptists
This year Virginia Baptists contributed $300,000 to Bluefield College. Next year that amount will be cut by more than 50 percent (“Virginia Baptist Mission Board takes show on the road,” Herald, Oct. 19). What do we do with the money…
The marriage amendment
I view with curiosity and bewilderment an amendment to “protect the institution of marriage” in the Commonwealth. As a former pastor of 26 years, a current professor of marriage and family life at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, as a…