When it comes to social media, there is power in the blood. “Questioning penal substitutionary atonement really brings out the 30-year-old white dudes in my feed,” contemporary Christian musician Michael Gungor commented during a Twitter storm he started Feb. 25…
Letting social media choose your Lenten practice can be rewarding — and humorous
Finding fresh ways to observe Lent, year in and year out, can be challenging. While Catholics, Episcopalians, Orthodox Christians and others can rely on tradition to guide them, some Christians and churches are left to their own devices. Fortunately for those…
For Baptist chaplain, strains in police force are real and painful
Tommy Deal wept the day five police officers were gunned down in Dallas last summer. Distraught, the Baptist minister jumped into his car in search of police to comfort — even though he was in Dalton, Ga., not Dallas. Geography didn’t…
Canadian Christians divide over Franklin Graham
Canadian Baptists joined other Christian leaders in an open letter criticizing evangelist Franklin Graham’s upcoming visit to Vancouver, British Columbia, released Feb. 24. Clergy from churches representing more than 60 percent of the Christians in the metro area said they…
Can Southern Baptist seminaries maintain gender restriction for pastors while encouraging women theological scholars? One school is trying.
A decade after Southern Baptist Convention seminaries were adding academic programs in homemaking to advance the denomination’s new emphasis on traditional gender and family roles in the church and home, at least one is creating opportunities for female students to…
Transitions for the week of 02.25.17
Please submit transitions — including staff changes, ordinations, anniversaries or deaths — to Barbara Francis. This page will be updated weekly. STAFF CHANGES Daren Barnett, now serving as pastor of First Baptist Church, Winnebago, Minn. Joe Bumbulis, concluding his tenure as…
As some key congregations threaten to defund SBC, leaders look for solutions
Leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention are taking seriously threats to withhold funds by churches dissatisfied with recent positions on public policy taken by some of the convention’s agencies. During its board leadership meeting Feb. 20-21, the SBC Executive Committee…
Warning of ‘seeds of division and bigotry,’ 4,000 faith leaders oppose new refugee ban
Sixty Baptists are among 4,000 signers of an open letter opposing President Trump’s expected executive action barring travelers from the seven Muslim majority countries which were named in an earlier travel ban but declared unconstitutional by federal courts. A petition…
Americans feeling ‘warmer’ toward Mormons and Muslims — but not evangelicals
Maybe Mitt Romney should have waited one election cycle to run for president. Romney was dogged by negative perceptions about his Mormon faith during his unsuccessful 2012 bid for the presidency. But new research shows attitudes about Mormons are warming,…
Politics, homosexuality, roil competing Baptist bodies in Texas
Separate state conventions affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention in Texas that parted ways during the SBC conservative resurgence now face challenges of their own generated by current controversies over homosexuality and President Donald Trump. The Baptist General Convention of…
Poll says 3 in 4 white evangelicals support Trump travel ban
Three in four white evangelicals support President Trump’s controversial executive order banning travelers from seven majority-Muslim countries, according to a recent poll by the Pew Research Center. The study, released Feb. 16, also found white evangelicals, who according to exit…
How to keep youth engaged with church and faith? Pay them.
Frustration transformed into innovation for a Washington State youth minister tired of losing young people to other activities and smartphones. His solution: pay them. It all started for Matt Overton with a growing trend of absenteeism in his youth group…