Longtime Southern Baptist leader Paige Patterson has apologized for once describing a teenage girl as “fine” and “built,” explaining it as a sermon illustration gone wrong.
Banking study may hold key to church Millennial crisis
Congregations are often broken-hearted when young adults leave church or don’t show up at all. “Churches in some ways feel rejected by Millennials,” said Laura Stephens-Reed, an Alabama-based clergy and congregational coach. But they shouldn’t feel alone, she said.
Transitions for the week of 05.11.18
Staff changes, congregational news and more from across the nation.
Head of Baptist peace group stepping down next year
LeDayne McLeese Polaski, a 20-year employee of the Baptist Peace Fellowship in North America, is stepping down as executive director at the end of May 2019. Polaski, who recently turned 50, said she has “had a growing sense” her departure…
Former Southern Baptist pastor wins North Carolina primary bid for Congress
Mark Harris, a former Southern Baptist pastor and past president of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, won Tuesday’s primary race for a U.S. House of Representatives seat from a Republican incumbent who narrowly beat him two years ago.
Americans seeking self-care in age of Trump, mass shootings and nuke fears
Anyone who even casually consumes news websites or social media is confronted with an array of anger- and fear-driven reports of End Times-inducing developments. So, it may be no coincidence that new Barna research has found “that most Americans are open to investing in their mental health through counseling” and that discussions about self-care have become mainstream.
Kentucky Baptist Convention leaders propose end to dual alignment with CBF
Churches dually aligned with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Kentucky Baptist Convention will be no more, if messengers to the KBC fall annual meeting agree with the convention’s credentials committee.
Southern Baptists say Paige Patterson’s views on women unbiblical
Hundreds of Southern Baptist women are signing an online petition calling for removal of a seminary president for views on the subjugation of women they say are unbiblical.
Pressler lawsuit headed back to state jurisdiction
A federal judge ruled May 3 that a sexual molestation lawsuit against former Southern Baptist Convention leader Paul Pressler must return to state court in Texas.
Transitions for the week of 05.03.18
Staff changes, congregational news and more from across the nation.
Baptist association expels church for pastor’s support of gay rights
An American Baptist church in West Virginia has been removed from its local association because its pastor does not believe that homosexuality is a sin.
Research: many ‘nones’ likely to find or return to faith
The Pew Research Center is reporting that 80 percent of Americans believe in God, which should be great news for America’s struggling churches. Right? But hold on. Of that group, only a slim majority, 56 percent, believe in the God described in the Bible, Pew found in a recently published survey. However, that doesn’t mean the rest are outright religion-rejecting secularists.