Disputes about baptism are troubling the waters among some Baptists. From a controversial policy of the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board, which narrows the definition of an acceptable baptism of a new missionary, to churches that wrestle with the…
VBMB staff has exhibit booth at CBF’s General Assembly
Participants at this year's Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's General Assembly had direct access to the ministries of the Virginia Baptist Mission Board — perhaps the first time a state Baptist convention has maintained a presence at the CBF's annual meeting. Dee…
Quiet CBF assembly leaves time for exhortations, declarations
Editor's note: This is compiled from previous ABP stories. ATLANTA (ABP) — News from speakers, workshops and auxiliary meetings during the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship general assembly included: — CBF Coordinating Council members unanimously elected Rob Nash as global missions coordinator…
Jesus’s ministry prompts focus on immigration, say Hispanics
The central question in the debate on immigration reform is not about economics or politics, Hispanic Baptist leaders said June 23. “The basic issue is whether Jesus still has a mission to the poor,” Albert Reyes, president of Baptist University…
Two Gardner-Webb University administrators die in one week
BOILING SPRINGS, N.C. (ABP) — Gardner-Webb University, a Baptist school in North Carolina, is mourning the loss of two members of its development staff who died within a week. David Boan, the school's vice president for development, died after a…
‘Information integrity’ essential to world citizenship, Nash tells ABP audience
Rob Nash, one day after being elected global missions coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, urged about 300 Baptists at an Associated Baptist Press banquet to pursue “information integrity” on their way to becoming “citizens of the world.” In his…
Hispanic university joins 3 groups in church-starting partnership
ARLINGTON, Texas (ABP) — The Baptist University of the Americas has joined a 3-year-old partnership with other Baptist groups to start Spanish-language churches across the United States. The San Antonio, Texas, school signed on to the partnership with the Hispanic…
Alito tips balance upholding Kansas’ death-penalty law
WASHINGTON (ABP) — New Justice Samuel Alito cast the deciding fifth vote in a June 26 Supreme Court decision upholding the constitutionality of Kansas' death-penalty law. The high court divided closely — and acrimoniously — in the case. On a…
Former Illinois Baptist exec Maurice Swinford dies
HERRIN, Ill. (ABP) – Maurice Swinford, who led the Illinois Baptist State Association for five years until his retirement in 1993, died Saturday. He was 78. An Illinois native born in Charleston, Swinford began working for the statewide association as…
Peaceful CBF meeting defines mission ‘in a world of need’
ATLANTA (ABP) — With a call to minister to “a world in need,” the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship began its 16th year by appointing 19 mission workers, welcoming a new missions coordinator, adopting a $17 million budget and contributing $32,801 to…
South African preacher, activist tells CBF to hear world’s ‘groans’
ATLANTA (ABP) — Maybe it takes a Methodist from South Africa to tell a bunch of Baptists in the American South that they need to wake up to reality and “step outside your own little bubble” in order to hear…
Fellowship breaks tradition with commissioning ceremony
ATLANTA (ABP) — The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship broke tradition June 23 during its annual general assembly in Atlanta by commissioning only short-term and self-funded mission workers, rather than any fully funded career missionaries. The group commissioned 19 new affiliated workers…