By Jeff Brumley New Year’s resolutions are huge in the United States, where 45 percent of Americans commit to them annually. But fewer take them seriously, according to the Statistic Brain Research Institute, which tracks the trend. It reported that…
Martha Stearns Marshall Month around the corner
By Bob Allen Heading into the 10th annual Martha Stearns Marshall Month of Preaching, Baptist Women in Ministry Executive Director Pam Durso sees evidence of “a shift in Baptist culture” toward accepting that God calls women as well as men…
Religious groups challenge contraceptive mandate in Supreme Court brief
By Bob Allen The government has no right to force religious groups including an order of Catholic nuns and the Southern Baptist Convention’s insurance provider to alter their own health care plans to achieve an Obamacare goal to provide women…
Bomb scare prompts evacuation at church
By Bob Allen Nearly 150 children were evacuated Jan. 4 from a day-care center at a Baptist church in Winston-Salem, N.C., while police investigated a suspicious package later determined to pose no threat. According to local media, authorities evacuated First…
Baptist minister seeks to comfort war-ravaged refugees in Belgium
By Ashleigh Bugg Children from more than 30 ethnicities play on the winding stone streets of Antwerp, Belgium. Some don religious head coverings while others wear their hair in intricate braids as they run through the fountains at a nearby…
Accrediting agency head stepping down
By Bob Allen Daniel Aleshire, a former faculty member at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has announced plans to retire as executive director of the Association of Theological Schools no later than June 2017. Aleshire, 68, was hired in 1990 as…
McAfee appoints new dean
By Bob Allen Jeffrey Willetts, founding dean and former vice president at the John Leland Center for Theological Studies in Arlington, Va., has been named dean of Mercer University’s James and Carolyn McAfee School of Theology. Willetts, currently professor of…
Ministry leaders: challenges of 2015 offer growth in coming year
By Jeff Brumley Ministry and nonprofit leaders are reporting opportunities for growth in 2016 — and some of them credit the difficulties of the preceding year for that. Still, for others, and for many churches, the next 12 months may have…
SBC president leads prayer at meeting of ‘dominionists’
By Bob Allen Southern Baptist Convention President Ronnie Floyd led 15,000 young adults in a prayer for spiritual awakening at a charismatic gathering Dec. 28 in Kansas City, Mo. “I’m not here tonight to highlight our theological differences, but to…
Former CBF moderator dies
By Bob Allen Donna Forrester, the first ordained woman to serve as moderator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, died Dec. 31, more than 14 years after being diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. Forrester, 66, served as minister of pastoral care…
Race, sex, politics garner headlines in 2015
By Bob Allen Race, sexuality and politics emerged as recurring themes in daily news coverage by Baptist News Global in 2015. Raphael Warnock, senior pastor of Atlanta’s historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, challenged black and white Baptists to move beyond comfort…
2015 delivered battering to the church — but also blessings, ministers say
By Jeff Brumley Churches, ministries and clergy faced plenty of challenges in 2015. The “nones” and the “dones” were on the rise and church attendance continued to drop. Meanwhile, the number of Christians declined sharply in the overall population while…