NACOGDOCHES, Texas (ABP) — Helping a church become a peaceable fellowship is a never-ending battle, Kyle Childress acknowledged. But as Christians “wage peace” in church, they learn skills that help them build bridges in a divided world, he added. “It's…
Mediation needed when focus turns from problems to personalities
DALLAS(ABP) — When church members who disagree stop looking for solutions and start focusing on personalities, it's time to call a mediator, according to experts at a Virginia ministry that helps churches resolve conflict. Conflict becomes destructive and potentially irreconcilable…
Politics not behind Carter plan to unite Baptists, Underwood says
MACON, Ga. (ABP) — An ambitious plan to unite Baptists in North America around the compassionate message of the gospel is not secretly a plan to get Baptists to elect Hillary Clinton as president, one of the plan's leaders said…
Baptist churches more vulnerable to clergy sex abuse, experts say
DALLAS (ABP) — A recent sex scandal involving two North Texas pastors and the women who accused them of molestation is unusual because the victims — by now beyond the statute of limitations for sex-abuse cases — urged authorities and…
Volunteer at Baptist camp faces child-pornography charges
COLUMBIA, Ill. (ABP) – A volunteer camp leader arrested for child pornography and indecent solicitation of a child met both of his victims through a camp sponsored by the Illinois Baptist State Association, according to police. While no crime is…
Update: Conservative, libertarian groups force amendment to lobbying-reform bill
WASHINGTON (ABP) — After an uproar from an odd coalition of conservative religious, libertarian and business groups, the Senate voted late Jan. 18 to scuttle part of its sweeping lobbying-reform bill. The Senate amended S. 1, known as the “Legislative…
Evangelicals join with scientists in fight against global warming
WASHINGTON (ABP) — A new alliance between prominent evangelical leaders and their secular scientific counterparts to fight global warming is drawing bipartisan support in Washington — but also has some evangelical detractors. A coalition of 28 scientists, theologians, ethicists and…
Baptist bloggers explore funding options in wake of Rio Grande Valley scandal
MESQUITE, Texas (ABP) — A small group of Baptists met Jan. 16 in Mesquite, Texas, to discuss ways to fund some Baptist General Convention of Texas ministries but not necessarily support a state convention in which they feel they have…
Ethics conference to precede CBF general assembly
ATLANTA (ABP) — Christian Ethics Today will sponsor an ethics conference June 27 in Washington, D.C. to address “The minister and politics: How to be prophetic without being partisan.” The free conference falls one day prior to the Cooperative Baptist…