By Bob Allen The world’s most famous Sunday school teacher is losing a pastor. Jeff Summers, pastor of Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Ga., for eight years, has announced his decision to accept a call to New Hope Baptist Church…
Church bus wreck kills eight
This story was edited after posting to correct an error in the second paragraph. By Bob Allen Eight people died Oct. 2 when a church bus returning from a conference led by former Southern Baptist Convention President Johnny Hunt blew…
US Baptist joins Kenya peacemaking cause
By Ken Camp A Baptist minister on faculty at a Catholic university recently participated in an international peacemaking initiative in western Kenya. Aaron Tyler, chair of the international relations graduate program at St. Mary’s University, joined an effort to help…
Board members turn citizen journalists
By Bob Allen Former Cooperative Baptist Fellowship moderator Harriet Harral turned citizen journalist when her return flight from an Associated Baptist Press board meeting turned into a bomb scare that made national headlines Oct. 1. Harral, CBF moderator in 2007-2008,…
Minister visits burned Egyptian churches
By Jeff Brumley By his own admission, San Antonio youth minister Gavin Rogers has a knack for making his parents worry. In 2012, as minister to youth and families at Trinity Baptist Church, he observed Lent by living as a…
ABP directors adopt merger plan, Religious Herald trustees to vote Oct. 7
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (ABP) — Associated Baptist Press directors voted Sept. 30 to merge with the Religious Herald, continuing a process begun in the summer of 2012. Details of the merger plan, by mutual agreement marked confidential until acted upon by…
On the Eastern Shore, church’s new facility will offer ‘home away from home’ to ministry volunteers
KELLER, Va. — Hollies Baptist Church on Virginia’s Eastern Shore recently added a 4,000-square foot ministry center to its facility which the church hopes will serve as a “home away from home” for those coming to the Shore to serve…
As BTSR adjusts to new campus, an open house will give public opportunity to tour new facility
RICHMOND — As Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond begins operations at a new location, friends and supporters will have an opportunity to tour the new campus Oct. 17, when the seminary hosts an open house for the public. The 22-year-old…
Baptist leader says pope soft on sin
By Bob Allen The head of the Southern Baptist Convention Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission says Pope Francis is soft on sin. Russell Moore, president of the moral-concerns agency for the nation’s second-largest faith group behind Catholicism, criticized the pope’s…
ABP/Religious Herald merger moves ahead
By Bob Allen Associated Baptist Press directors voted Sept. 30 to merge with the Religious Herald, a Virginia Baptist newspaper published since 1828. Details of the merger plan, by mutual agreement marked confidential until acted upon by both governing boards,…
New group breaks CBF ground
By Jeff Brumley More than 300 Christians from 10 Atlanta-area Cooperative Baptist churches got fired up for collaborative ministry at a combined Sunday night worship service that may be forging new ground in Fellowship life. “It was really empowering,” Park…
Embrace diversity, says BWA leader
By Bob Allen Cultural and theological diversity among Baptists worldwide is both a challenge and a strength, Baptist World Alliance General Secretary Neville Callam told European Baptist leaders gathered Sept. 25-28 in Bratislava, Slovakia. Callam urged the Council of the…