GRAPEVINE, Texas (ABP) — American Christendom has become infected with a disease, and free and faithful Baptists hold the cure, Texas pastor Charlie Johnson told a group of Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty supporters July 1. Johnson addressed the…
Hispanic involvement growing within Fellowship ranks
GRAPEVINE, Texas (ABP) — The Hispanics are coming to the United States in droves — and in response the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship plans to plant Hispanic churches in droves. The CBF's Hispanic Initiative aims to start 400 new Hispanic congregations…
CBF, Buckner will partner to combat AIDS in Africa
GRAPEVINE, Texas (ABP) — The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and a Texas Baptist charity have begun a partnership to help combat the growing AIDS crisis in sub-Saharan Africa. The partnership with Buckner Orphan Care International was announced during CBF's annual general…
Stories, statistics motivate Global Women to action
GRAPEVINE, Texas (ABP) — There are 1.3 billion people in the world considered “absolute poor,” according to information provided by Global Women. Of these, 70 percent are women. Two-thirds of the world's illiterate people are women. One woman a minute…
Leonard says Baptists should learn from ‘generic’ Christian churches
GRAPEVINE, Texas (ABP) — The popular “generic Christianity” represented by nondenominational churches holds promise for Baptists if they reclaim the importance of rituals, recapture the individual and communal aspects of church life, and respond to the challenges of secularism and…
CBF’s new purpose statement critiqued for not mentioning Jesus, evangelism
GRAPEVINE, Texas (ABP) — The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship approved revisions to its constitution and bylaws July 1, turning aside a move to make a commitment to Jesus Christ and evangelism explicit in the CBF purpose statement. The old statement said,…
CBFers elect female, African-American to top offices at Texas meeting
GRAPEVINE, Texas (ABP) — Meeting during their annual general assembly in Grapevine, Texas, June 30, members of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship elected a female pastor from San Francisco and an African-American retired pastor and denominational leader to the organization's top…
Baptist World Alliance’s Lotz calls for ‘pre-Christendom’ Baptists at CBF
GRAPEVINE, Texas (ABP) — Participants in the Baptist World Alliance “belong together because we belong to Christ,” Denton Lotz told more than 500 supporters at a dinner in Grapevine, Texas, celebrating the global Baptist group's 100th anniversary. The dinner preceded…
Sandra Day O’Connor, crucial ‘swing vote’ on controversial issues, to retire from court
WASHINGTON (ABP) — Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who has played a crucial role in many of the Supreme Court's most controversial decisions over the past 24 years, announced her plans to retire from that body July 1. The surprise announcement…
CBF assembly OKs partner proposal that caps funding, classifies schools
GRAPEVINE, Texas (ABP) — The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship affirmed a proposal for how the moderate group relates to its partner institutions and agencies, in spite of concern that the plan favors the strongest partners and harms the most vulnerable. “We've…
CBF council adjusts partnership report, approves $30,000 grant for BCE
GRAPEVINE, Texas (ABP) — The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Coordinating Council, meeting June 29 prior to the organization's annual general assembly, approved revisions to the partnership study committee report and approved a one-time gift of $30,000 to the Baptist Center for…
House of Commons legalizes gay marriage across Canada
WASHINGTON (ABP) — As Canada's lower house of Parliament voted to extend marriage rights to same-sex couples nationwide June 28, evoking strong responses from groups on both sides of the issue across the border in the United States. The House…