ATLANTA (ABP) — Rob Nash, nominee for global missions coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, will be the speaker at the annual Associated Baptist Press banquet June 22 at 5 p.m. in Atlanta. Nash is expected to be elected to…
CBF general assembly to answer Vestal’s challenge for social justice
ATLANTA (ABP) — This year's general assembly of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship promises to answer the challenge Coordinator Daniel Vestal gave at last year's meeting — a challenge to face head-on the issues of poverty, social justice, diversity and mercy….
Mercer Press to begin filling gap in kids’ Sunday school literature
MACON, Ga. (ABP) — In an attempt to meet needs and re-connect with its Baptist constituency, the publishing arm of Mercer University will begin offering children's Sunday school literature this fall. The move, according to Mercer University Press officials, is…
Suspect arrested after fire destroys church buildings in rural Kentucky
OLNEY, Ky. (ABP) — Lafayette Baptist Church, a rural Kentucky congregation that dates back to the late 1800s, lost its church facility in an apparent arson attack May 20. The fire, reportedly set early Saturday morning, was not discovered until…
Baptist groups send workers, supplies, funds to help victims of Java quake
YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia (ABP) — Several Baptist groups have joined the worldwide outpouring of support for victims of a deadly 6.3-magnitude earthquake, which killed more than 5,700 people May 27. More than 200,000 people remain homeless, according to the Indonesian government….
Ex-IMB missionaries find funding, return to Brazilian mission field
DALLAS (ABP) — Don and Angie Finley, Southern Baptist missionaries since 1988, resigned from their post in Brazil in July 2003 and returned to the United States rather than affirm the denomination's new, more conservative doctrinal statement. Now — three…
ANOTHER VIEW: Fear factor slows growth of gospel in Egypt
Some time ago, the elder sister in an Egyptian Muslim family decided to follow Jesus Christ as Lord. Instead of keeping her faith a secret, as many Muslim-background believers do, she told her younger sister-who also became a believer. One…
Beefed-up NC policy would oust churches that tolerate gay members
ASHEBORO, N.C. (ABP) — Leaders of the North Carolina Baptist State Convention have beefed up a policy designed to oust local churches that affirm homosexuality or even tolerate gay church members. Meeting in Asheboro, N.C., the convention's executive committee and…
ANOTHER VIEW: Entertaining ourselves to death
Aerican society and even Christians, it seems, are surrendering to the insatiable desire to be entertained. Our quest for amusement has become not only a national pasttime, it has become an addiction. There is little about life in the United…
Executive Committee backs down from 10% target for SBC officers
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) — The Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee has amended a recommendation that the convention encourage the election of SBC officers “whose churches give at least 10 percent of their undesignated receipts to the Cooperative Program.” The move…
The house of educators
Heritage Column for May 4, 2005 By Fred Anderson There is a pretty brick house tucked away on a side residential street in a Petersburg suburb. There are signs of life everywhere-in the flower garden so lovingly tended, in the…
NC may change trustee nominations; new executive urges ‘one more try’
ASHEBORO, N.C. (ABP) — North Carolina Baptist leaders endorsed a plan to grant agencies of that Baptist convention more control over who is nominated as their trustees and directors — an issue that has prompted a lot of controversy in…