Please submit transitions — including staff changes, ordinations, anniversaries or deaths — to Barbara Francis. This page will be updated weekly. STAFF CHANGES Arnie Adkison, to Buckner International, as chief development officer. He most recently was executive director of global resources…
NBC/USA president calls for greater sensitivity in race relations
The president of a major African-American denomination who earlier this summer participated in a groundbreaking discussion about improving race relations with leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention said Sept. 8 that non-blacks often lack empathy for the plight facing black America….
Advocates for disabled, indigenous peoples, clash over Rio Paralympics
A human rights organization that advocates on behalf of indigenous people groups around the world criticized organizers of the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games for depicting Brazilian tribal people as savages. Survival International took exception to a press release announcing participants…
Georgia church takes missional presence global
Johns Creek, Ga., is situated on the banks of the Chattahoochee River, an area that once served as a meeting place between rival Cherokee and Creek people. Tom Blue Wolf, a Creek descendent, told an interviewer the tribes were inspired…
Prosperity gospel preacher confirms illness
A controversial “Bapticostal” megachurch pastor has confirmed he is facing a “health challenge” amid rumors that he is terminally ill. Bishop Eddie Long, senior pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Ga., released a statement Sept. 6 acknowledging…
‘Upstart’ Baptist news site aims at becoming Kentucky’s conservative media voice
The editor of the Kentucky Baptist Convention’s online newspaper says fellow journalists covering politics in the state capital shouldn’t be surprised about getting scooped on a breaking news story. Kentucky Today editor Roger Alford editorialized Sept. 7 that he was…
CBF leader charged with shaping Fellowship’s ‘young Baptist ecosystem’
Devita Parnell is no stranger to the occasional confusion and curiosity elicited by sharing her job title with others: young Baptist ecosystem manager for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. “One time I mentioned my title to a woman at church and…
Hillary Clinton to speak to National Baptists
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will speak at this week’s annual gathering of the National Baptist Convention USA. The group billing itself as the nation’s oldest and largest African-American religious organization announced Sept. 4 that the former first lady, U.S….
American Baptists urged to support Murrow Indian Children’s Home
American Baptist Home Mission Societies has established a GoFundMe campaign to show solidarity with a children’s home in Oklahoma widely criticized after declining a donation from an atheist organization in August. The Murrow Indian Children’s Home in Muskogee, Okla., returned…
BWA appoints coordinator for mission and justice
Trisha Miller Manarin, executive coordinator of the Mid-Atlantic Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, has been appointed Baptist World Alliance coordinator for the Division on Mission, Evangelism and Justice. The part-time position was created in July when the BWA General Council approved merger…
Role of deacons changing as churches embrace missional focus
Just a few years ago, Eddie Hammett says, the subject of deacons in the free church tradition started coming up in much of the congregational consulting and coaching work he was doing. Many churches — and plenty of deacons — were doubting the effectiveness…
Pastors oppose Franklin Graham crusade in Canada
Two Canadian Baptist pastors have announced publicly they won’t be taking part in a citywide crusade next March in Vancouver, British Columbia, featuring U.S. evangelist Franklin Graham. Tim Kuepfer, pastor of First Baptist Church of Vancouver, and Tim Dickau, pastor…