JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (ABP) — The Missouri Baptist Convention and Missouri Baptist University must sit down and discuss possible solutions to their ongoing legal battle. In 2002 the convention sued five of its agencies that decided to elect their own…
Baptist minister from Carolinas devotes free time to helping Mississippi town
Robert Marus/ABP Amy Hardee, a North Carolina minister who serves as a volunteer relief coordinator in the town of Pass Christian, Miss., explains to a visitor some of the plans the Hurricane Katrina-decimated town has for redeveloping its historic beachfront…
Sloan won’t link Houston Baptist only to fundamentalists, he says
HOUSTON (ABP) — Robert Sloan, new president of the Houston Baptist University, says he doesn't expect the school to abandon its ties to the traditional Texas Baptist convention in favor of its competitor, the fundamentalist Southern Baptists of Texas Convention….
With peace elusive, Lebanese leader questions Baptist school’s future
BEIRUT (ABP) — As international negotiations to end the war in Lebanon proceeded slowly Aug. 8, Lebanese Baptist leaders questioned whether two Baptist schools, now housing hundreds of refugees displaced by the conflict, will be able to begin the academic…
Texas group trapped in Lebanon says peace, love prevailed
FORNEY, Texas (ABP) — A Texas mission team, trapped in war-torn Lebanon when Israel invaded July 13, says prayer, patience and the love of a Baptist congregation in Beirut helped them through the ordeal. The 10-member team originally set out…
First Baptist values ‘real church’ as it rebuilds away from water
GULFPORT, Miss. (ABP) — Members of First Baptist Church of Gulfport have learned a lot in the year since Hurricane Katrina destroyed their waterfront church buildings. Mostly they've learned that a church is much more than an edifice. “It's an…
UPDATE: Sloan named president of Houston Baptist University
HOUSTON (ABP) — Houston Baptist University trustees elected Robert Sloan, the controversial former president of Baylor University, as president of the 2,300-student school Aug. 8. Sloan will assume the presidency Sept. 1, becoming the school's third president since its founding…
Baptist pastor heals in Kenya with help of sabbatical grant
ATLANTA (ABP) — Tom Stocks, the pastor for 17 years at Rosalind Hills Baptist Church in Roanoke, Va., never thought he would need a sabbatical. But in January — after recent staff changes, three church fund-raising campaigns in five years,…
Baptist volunteers make inroads in largely Catholic New Orleans
NEW ORLEANS (ABP) — After serving the homeless for decades in New Orleans, Tobey Pitman is finally paving significant inroads with leaders and homeowners in the predominantly Catholic region. That's not to say he hasn't had noteworthy success with his…
Signs of life rare in New Orleans, but some hardy souls staying put
Robert Marus/ABP Joe McKeever, executive director of the Baptist Association of Greater New Orleans, addresses pastors and other church leaders from the association during their monthly support meeting Aug. 2. McKeever has been holding such meetings as a way to…
Alliance of Baptists fined $34,000 for ‘tourist’ activities in Cuba
WASHINGTON (ABP) — The government agency charged with enforcing the United States' ban on travel to Cuba has notified the Alliance of Baptists that it will be fined $34,000 for allegedly engaging in tourist activities while in Cuba for religious…
Rhonda Nash named Baptist campus minister at UMW
Rhonda Nash has been named Baptist campus minister at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg. Nash, who has been interim campus minister for the past two years, assumed full-time responsibility on Aug. 1. The Wise, Va., native was associate…