More than a year after a catastrophic tsunami opened doors for Virginia Baptists to minister in southern India, ties between Baptists in the Commonwealth and in the Indian states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu are burgeoning. Virginia Baptists are now…
VBMB, BTSR, other launch network to raise next generation of pastors
The Virginia Baptist Mission Board and Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond have joined with more than 40 Baptist churches and organizations across the South to launch the Shiloh Network, a new cooperative effort to encourage and recruit young people to…
Back at sea: Partnership between Indian and Virginia Baptists is restoring livel
By Robert Dilday Associate Editor Some 75 Indian fishing families have had their livelihoods restored, thanks to the joint efforts of Baptists in Virginia and India. Over the past few months, fiberglass boats-replacing those destroyed by last year's tsunami-have been…
Gaddy warns Mainstream Baptists to be vigilant on religious liberty
5{arus Associated Baptist Press Speaking Feb. 24 in the birthplace of the First Amendment’s religion clauses, a Baptist minister who is a professional opponent of the Religious Right warned Baptists to be equally vigilant. Welton Gaddy, president of the Washington-based…
Foreign policy think tank begins initiative on religion
With help from a former secretary of state, an influential think tank focusing on foreign relations has launched a new initiative that will study and explain the role religion plays in foreign policy. The Council on Foreign Relations, with offices…
NAMB panel to study charges, but agency won’t release audit
By Greg Warner Associated Baptist Press Trustees of the North American Mission Board are asking a task force to see if there is any truth to allegations-first reported in the Christian Index-that the NAMB's evangelism and church-planting efforts are lagging…
FIRST PERSON: A rewarding and unusual disaster relief experience
By Paul and Gerri McDaniel The McDaniels, members of Lynn Haven Baptist Church, Vinton, recently spent two weeks in Gulfport, Mississippi, working with one of Virginia Baptists’ partner churches, Crosspoint. Crosspoint Church, a church only a year and a half…
Loaves, fishes and aluminum boxes
By Paige Peak Virginia Baptist Mission Board Feeding the multitudes was modeled by Christ. What seemed like such a limited offering resulted in thousands being fed. Virginia Baptist disaster relief volunteers fed hundreds of thousands of people last year alone…
Volunteers sought for disaster relief
Doctors, nurses, firefighters, paramedics, EMTs and other critical incident responders: If you or if someone you know has emergency response training, international disaster relief efforts are being coordinated by Virginia Baptists that could use your skills to save lives and…
Satellite images renew interest in search for Noah’s ark
DALLAS (ABP) — Recently released satellite images of an unknown formation or object on Mt. Ararat in Turkey have added fuel to archeologists' ongoing quest to find Noah's ark. The “new and significant development,” an image from a QuickBird satellite,…
More Baptist churches looking to Lent for community, confession, cadence
DALLAS (ABP) — For Mike Clingenpeel and Ray Vickrey, Easter doesn't mean much without about 40 days of reflection and repentance before it. Though the two men pastor churches in different states — Clingenpeel at River Road Church, Baptist in…
Ordination variations: Some wonder is it baptistic? Is it biblical?
(ABP) — Renowned 19th century British preacher C. H. Spurgeon rejected the practice. Baptist statesman George Truett surrendered to it only at his church's insistence. Christian ethicist T. B. Maston accepted it as a deacon but not as a minister….