NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) — As Southern Baptist Convention leaders urge local congregations to baptize 1 million converts this year, statistics from the SBC's 2004-2005 church year reveal a baptism decline for the fifth time in six years. The annual statistics,…
CBF nominates Robert Nash for top missions position
ATLANTA (ABP) — Robert Nash has received the nomination for the global missions coordinator position at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. CBF council members will vote to approve the nomination at their annual meeting June 21 in Atlanta. The nomination comes…
Humility the key for common ground, stress Baylor inauguration speakers
WACO, Texas (ABP) — Humility and civility offer common ground where faith and reason can exist in harmony — whether in a nation or on a Christian university campus, speakers stressed at the inauguration of John Lilley as Baylor University's…
Playboy calls for Baylor women; officials tell students to resist the call
WACO, Texas (ABP) — Playboy photographers held an open casting call April 18 at Baylor University, despite the university's discipline and suspension in recent years of students who posed in the magazine. The magazine's photographers traveled to Baylor to solicit…
Louisiana Baptists begin plans to build 1,000 New Orleans homes in two years
NEW ORLEANS (ABP) — In a move that one official termed a “God-sized” task, Southern Baptists have pledged a Herculean effort to rebuild homes and churches destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Jim Burton, director of volunteer mobilization for the Southern Baptist…
Students plan day of speech to counter ‘Day of Silence’
WASHINGTON (ABP) — The culture wars over homosexuality are coming to your local high school soon, featuring a two-day battle. As an estimated 500,000 high school and college students nationwide plan to participate in the national “Day of Silence” April…
New Orleans-area CBF church emerges in Katrina’s aftermath
ATLANTA (ABP) — Amid disaster-response efforts to rebuild homes and lives after Hurricane Katrina, a new Cooperative Baptist Fellowship church has been born in western St. Tammany Parish, La. Bridgewater Church, launched Feb. 12 with a worship service at Madisonville…
Survey results: Church not important for spiritual growth, Americans say
DALLAS (ABP) — Almost three-fourths of Americans claim to be Christians, but only a small fraction consider church the place to deepen their faith, a new survey says. Less than 20 percent of American adults believe participation in a congregation…
As collaboration takes root worldwide, focus on ‘purity’ isolates SBC missions
DALLAS (ABP) — At a time when collaboration and cooperation characterize Christian missions, the Southern Baptist International Mission Board appears to be moving toward isolation and exclusion, some veteran missionaries and missiologists insist. They point to new IMB policies —…
Resolution on Baptist dissent submitted to SBC committee
Editor's note: This story is updated from its April 17 release. ARLINGTON, Texas (ABP) — In a sign of the controversy threatening to engulf the Southern Baptist Convention's upcoming annual meeting, a Texas pastor has formally submitted a resolution that…
BJC announces essay contest
To engage high school students in church-state issues and to generate interest from a wide range of Baptists, the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty has launched the 2006 Religious Liberty Essay Contest. Open to all Baptist high school students…
EDITORIAL: We shall all change or be changed
Editorial for April 6, 2006 By Jim White Editor Have you noticed in your reading of the Gospels that Jesus is not the least bit bashful? In the first few verses of Matthew 18, the disciples came to Jesus asking,…