One of the nation’s oldest seminaries has changed its name and removed the word “seminary” in the process. Hartford Seminary, established in 1833 by a group of Congregational ministers to train ministerial leadership for churches, now is known as Hartford…
This Bucket Challenge offers DIY cleanup relief for disaster victims
The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has turned to the bucket to counter the pandemic limits placed on disaster response ministry, said Daynette Snead-Perez, CBF’s U.S. disaster response manager. A “1,000 Bucket Challenge” seeks individuals and churches to fill 1,000 5-gallon buckets…
Faced with a health scare and a pandemic, Max Lucado is thinking about how to maximize the moment
It has been 36 years since Max Lucado debuted his first book, and even he is amazed how far he’s come since 1985. Just a few years prior to that, he was an associate pastor tasked with writing the church’s…
Ronnie Floyd resigns SBC Executive Committee leadership with two weeks’ notice
After 28 months on the job, the embattled president of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee announced his resignation Oct. 14 saying he cannot abide by the recent decision to waive attorney-client privilege for a sexual abuse investigation. Ronnie Floyd,…
United Methodists’ ‘reluctant pro-choice’ stance puts clergy and laity at odds with new Texas abortion law
The current struggle over Texas’ strict anti-abortion law perplexes many United Methodists who thought the issue of reproductive choice had been decided. Now they’re finding themselves back where clergy coalitions were in the 1960s and ’70s, seeking to support women…
Judge says New York must offer option of religious exemptions to vaccine mandate even if exemptions aren’t granted
New York employers do not have to grant religious exemptions to the state’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate, but the option to seek a religious exemption must be offered, a federal judge indicated Oct. 12. U.S. District Judge David N. Hurd issued…
Transitions for the week of 10-15-21
Please submit transitions — including staff changes, ordinations, anniversaries or deaths — to Barbara Francis. This page will be updated bi-weekly. STAFF CHANGES Mike Anderson, to Springwood Baptist Church, Buchanan, Va., as interim pastor. Lonnie Brawley, concluding his tenure as pastor…
CBF state organizations in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi to merge
Cooperative Baptist Fellowship state organizations in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi have voted to merge into a single regional organization in a process facilitated by CBF leaders. “Our coordinating councils have all unanimously approved this and in each of our separate…
What seemed like an odd motion at the June SBC meeting now appears prescient
Lost among the big headlines of the June Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting — headlines about creation of a Sexual Abuse Task Force, a hotly contested presidential election and resolutions on Critical Race Theory and abortion — was a consequential…
White supremacy permeates U.S. life, scholar says
The issue of white supremacy in the United States is not confined to people of the past who spewed racial hatred, researcher and author Robert P. Jones told a Baptist gathering in Kentucky. “When most white people hear the word…
Amid the pandemic and racial reckoning, most Americans give clergy high marks
A majority of Americans, churchgoing or otherwise, believe pastors are trustworthy and aware of the challenges faced by their local communities, new research by Barna shows. Among U.S. adults, 59% either “disagreed strongly” or “somewhat disagreed” that local clergy are…
In praise of Shiprah and Puah and all their descendants
The Bible is full of women heroes, exemplars of courage. We do not give them attention, and very few end up in the stained-glass windows. Two of these heroes are Shiphrah and Puah, Hebrew midwives in Egypt during the Hebrews’…