GREENSBORO, N.C. (ABP) — One of North Carolina's most prominent churches has joined the list of congregations leaving the Southern Baptist Convention. First Baptist Church of Greensboro voted Sept. 15 to remove all denominational affiliation from its bylaws and cut…
Georgia church with female co-pastor leaves association over BF&M adoption
ROME, Ga. (ABP) — North Broad Baptist Church in Rome, Ga., has left the Floyd County Baptist Association after the group adopted a statement of faith that, among other things, bans female pastors. Members of the church reportedly left the…
Little Rock pastor to become full-time Arkansas CBF head
LITTLE ROCK (ABP) — The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Arkansas has chosen Ray Higgins of Little Rock as its first full-time paid coordinator. Higgins, pastor of Little Rock's Second Baptist Church for the last 10 years, will begin as coordinator…
‘Aiding Spaces’ proves reality TV can inspire churches to ministry
GRAPEVINE, Texas (ABP) — If healthy families begin with healthy homes, then one Dallas-Fort Worth-area church recently gave several families a large shot in the arm. To celebrate the congregation's fifth anniversary, members of 121 Community Church in Grapevine remodeled…
Cooperative, American Baptists send relief for Jeanne’s Haiti victims
ATLANTA (ABP) — In the wake of yet another disaster in Haiti, two Baptist groups have released funds to help the storm-ravaged nation. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has donated $10,000 to aid World Vision in its relief efforts following devastation…
Baylor narrowly votes to postpone call for Sloan’s termination
WACO, Texas (ABP) — Baylor University regents voted to postpone indefinitely a call for President Robert Sloan's resignation, and they unanimously rejected a request by the university's faculty senate to hold a faculty-wide referendum on Sloan's administration. After a motion…
Louisiana College offers presidency to conservative seminary scholar
PINEVILLE, La. (ABP) — Trustees of Louisiana College voted Sept. 24 to offer the presidency of the embattled school to Malcolm Yarnell, a seminary dean with conservative credentials. Yarnell, assistant dean of theological studies and associate professor of systemic theology…
Florida Supreme Court strikes down ‘Terri’s Law’
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (ABP) – The Florida Supreme Court ruled Sept 23 that the law passed to restore Terri Schiavo's feeding tube is unconstitutional and violates the separation of powers between the judicial, legislative and executive branches of the state government….
Bill intended to protect pledge passes House of Representatives
WASHINGTON (ABP) — The House of Representatives has passed a bill that would strip the Supreme Court and all other federal courts of the ability to decide cases involving the Pledge of Allegiance. On Sept. 23, the House voted 247-173…
Churches in Alabama, Florida assess damage from Ivan
ORANGE BEACH, Ala. (ABP) — “It's nothing but rubble on the sand.” That's the news Paul Smith, pastor of Romar Beach Baptist Church, got from congregation members who watched televised reports of Hurricane Ivan smashing into the beachfront church building….
Future of society, democracy at stake, Land tells SBC Executive Committee
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) — America is approaching “the most crucial election process in our lifetime,” according to Richard Land, executive director of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. Though not explicitly endorsing the re-election of President Bush, Land…
Baptist relief efforts follow Ivan from Caribbean to Virginias
SUMMERSVILLE, W. Va. (ABP) — “Ivan the Terrible” is finally gone, but Baptist volunteers are just getting started cleaning up the mess he left — from the Caribbean to the Alleghenies. The storm first made landfall in the United States…