By Bob Allen The head of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s global missionary enterprise asked the CBF Governing Board Sept. 17 to pray for Southern Baptists after the news they are cutting their international mission force by 600 to 800 jobs…
CBF head prepares for papal visit
Coming Monday on Baptist News Global: Baptists and Pope Francis’ visit. By Bob Allen Though it isn’t listed on any official calendar, next week is “Pope Week” for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, CBF Executive Coordinator reported Sept. 17 to the group’s…
PNBC elects new general secretary
By Bob Allen Timothy Tee Boddie, a former pastor, university chaplain and divinity school administrator has been named general secretary of the Progressive National Baptist Convention. Boddie, until recently director of the master of arts in Christian education program at…
World’s restoration is focus of young adult gathering
By Blake Tommey In the field of social psychology, scholars have coined a technical term known as plausibility structure. Among those who seek to understand how people’s thoughts, feelings and behaviors are influenced by others, plausibility structure is essentially a…
Iraqi-born teen is Passport’s 100,000th camper
By Jeff Brumley Iraqi-born teen Alfarouk Majid passed through a shower of confetti, glitter and applause to accept the “PASSPORT Camper for Life” certificate he received to mark his being the organization’s 100,000th camper. “The crowd cheered as we gave this…
Many young people shun cellphone use in church — even to read Scripture
By Jeff Brumley Young adults, known for using cellphones in just about every public setting imaginable, frown on the practice during worship services, a recent survey has found. The Aug. 25 Pew Research Center study found that only 9 percent…
Ole Miss honors Will Campbell
By Bob Allen Sixty years after he was forced out of a job for challenging racial segregation on campus, the University of Mississippi is naming a plaza for the late Will Campbell, a renegade Baptist minister and author active in…
Refugee crisis spurs Baptist assistance
By Eron Henry and Robert Dilday Baptists are ratcheting up their assistance to the growing refugee crisis in Europe, as increasing numbers of migrants are fleeing war and economic dislocation for safer havens. European leaders are struggling to develop a…
Nepal remains ‘secular’ state
By Bob Allen Lawmakers in Nepal rejected an effort to declare the Himalayan nation a Hindu state, adopting draft language to a new constitution Sept. 14 maintaining its status as a secular state. The news brought relief for minority groups,…
Christian Index board disbands
By Bob Allen The board of the nation’s oldest continuously published religious newspaper has disbanded, and the 193-year-old Christian Index will come under the umbrella of the Georgia Baptist Convention, as part of a massive restructuring of the 3,600-church affiliate…
Robert Jeffress prays ‘special blessing’ on Donald Trump
A Southern Baptist megachurch pastor asked God’s blessing on Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump in an invocation at a Sept. 14 campaign rally in Dallas. Trump, addressing a crowd estimated at 17,000 Monday evening at the American Airlines Center, thanked…
Adult coloring books emerging as popular spiritual practice
By Jeff Brumley Coloring as a spiritual practice has made the news recently. Yes, that’s “coloring” as in coloring books, crayons, colored pens and pencils, etc. Ditto for drawing, sketching and doodling as religious activities. In fact, one person told…