HOUSTON (ABP) — Church planters worldwide will no longer have to leave their places of service temporarily to receive specialized theological training thanks to SemiNEXT, an online educational program being developed by Houston-area Baptist leaders. This fall organizers are unveiling…
Church re-start in Greenville spearheads future work with rural poor
GREENVILLE, Miss. (ABP) — Leaders in Mississippi are using the rebirth of a church in Greenville to spearhead long-term missions initiatives in the Mississippi Delta and establish a starting point for work with the rural poor. Located in Greenville, Harvest…
Falwell offers vision for America, election advice at SBC seminary
FORT WORTH, Texas (ABP) — Visionary Christian leaders in America's pulpits, courthouses and statehouses can transform the nation and change the world, televangelist Jerry Falwell told students at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Falwell, an Independent Fundamentalist-turned-Southern Baptist, spoke Aug. 24…
New poll on voters and religion shows strengths for both parties
WASHINGTON (ABP) — A new poll suggests that American voters hold complex — and seemingly contradictory — views on religion and politics. The poll's results were released Aug. 24 by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life and the…
Cheney differs with Bush on marriage amendment
WASHINGTON (ABP) — Vice President Dick Cheney surprised many of his and President Bush's most conservative supporters by publicly differing with the president on the issue of same-sex marriage Aug. 24. The next day, Republican Party officials ratified platform language…
Second federal judge rules against ‘partial-birth’ abortion ban
NEW YORK (ABP) — A second federal judge has ruled against the government's ban on so-called “partial birth” abortions, saying the federal law passed by Congress last year is unconstitutional. The Aug. 26 ruling by U.S. District Judge Richard Casey…
More Americans living in poverty, without insurance, census stats say
WASHINGTON (ABP) — The number of Americans living in poverty rose 3.4 percent last year, to 35.8 million people, while the number without health insurance climbed to 45.0 million, an increase of 1.4 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau….
Carson-Newman College mourns loss of student murdered in Senegal
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. (ABP) — An international student at Carson-Newman College died Aug. 23 from injuries she received in an attack on a street in Senegal. Du-Jae (D.J.) Lee was a Carson-Newman student for only a year, but she made…
Astros’ full-time chaplain sees star athletes as ‘somebody’s kids’
HOUSTON (ABP) — Gene Pemberton joined the Houston Astros staff in 1994 to help his old friend, Astros owner and Baptist layman Drayton McLane Jr., in community development. In that rile, he's made thousands of speeches to a wide variety…
Fellowship to focus hurricane relief in Florida’s DeSoto, Hardee counties
PUNTA GORDA, Fla. (ABP) — Cooperative Baptist Fellowship relief efforts will be concentrated in two rural, inland Florida counties where rural and migrant populations were particularly hard hit by Hurricane Charley. “It looks like our focus will be on Hardee…
BGCT candidate would become first Hispanic president of Texas convention
SAN ANTONIO, Texas (ABP) — Albert Reyes, president of Baptist University of the Americas and current first vice president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, will be nominated for president of the BGCT this fall. If elected, Reyes will…
With more coffeehouses than churches, Seattle is fertile ground for ministry
SEATTLE (ABP) — Susan Kim crouches on a corner of busy Broadway Street in Seattle, talking about Christ to two street people known in the area by their aliases, Spacebag and Freedom. They are young men, but their faces are…