Please submit transitions — including staff changes, ordinations, anniversaries or deaths — to Barbara Francis. This page will be updated weekly. STAFF CHANGES David and Judy Bailey, to Oakland Baptist Church, Gum Spring, Va., as interim pastors. Shana Bailey, to First…
BWA, Catholics to resume dialog in 2017
Baptists and Catholics will launch a third round of theological conversations in 2017, the Baptist World Alliance has reported. The announcement followed talks between the BWA and the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
School voucher program compromises religious liberty, says BJC
Funneling taxpayer funds to religious schools through a voucher program compromises religious liberty, according to a brief filed at the Nevada Supreme Court and joined by the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty.
Apocalyptic obsession that inspired ‘Left Behind’ series also fueling Trump support, ministers say
If nothing else, the best selling “Left Behind” series, first published in 1995, was well-timed. The entire culture was preoccupied with big endings and scary changes.
J. Harwood Cochrane, benefactor to Baptist causes, dies at 103
J. Harwood Cochrane, a Virginian whose fortune from a trucking empire supported numerous Baptist causes as well as the arts, died July 26 at 103.
More Noah’s ark headlines — this time at 5th-century synagogue excavation
While Ken Ham’s “Ark Encounter” museum near Williamstown, Ky., has drawn the lion’s share of attention this summer directed toward Noah’s vessel, another representation of the ark in Israel has been wowing the archaeological world.
Black pastor who wowed CBF now has Clinton’s ear on race
Kevin Cosby, the black Louisville, Ky., pastor who has inspired Cooperative Baptists on matters of race may now have the ear of Hillary Clinton as she prepares for her presidential run. The presumptive Democratic candidate attended a racial reconciliation worship…
BWA urges Baptists to stand with victims in war-torn regions of Nigeria
The Baptist World Alliance is urging the United Nations to increase its threat level designation for Nigeria and the Lake Chad region. The global Baptist organization cited rampant conflict and dislocation in the region, including “violence, murder and kidnapping” in…
Growing movement pushing pastors to ‘get real,’ vulnerable with congregations
It takes a lot of guts and humility to be vulnerable. Just look at the New Testament account of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet, Mary Alice Birdwhistell said. “Since feet were the primary mode of transportation, think how dirty they…
Fire guts CBF church in North Carolina, station reports
Officials are investigating whether lightning sparked a fire that destroyed part of a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship church in Mount Holly, N.C., Thursday. That’s what WSOC television reported Friday afternoon from the scene of the blaze at First Baptist Church. However,…
CBF appoints committee to implement Illumination Project
The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has announced the creation of a five-member committee charged in part with guiding the organization through renewed controversy over its longstanding policy against hiring LGBTQ people. The committee is responsible for implementing the Illumination Project, which…
Talking race is — and should be — uncomfortable, Baptist leaders say
Of all the workshops offered at last month’s CBF General Assembly, at least one of them counted on its participants checking their comfort zones at the door. The leaders of “The Elephant in the Room: Engaging in Dialogue around Race…