By Jeff Brumley This week’s “Loving Oklahoma” campaign comes at just the right moment for disaster-response coordinators who are launching a new phase in the recovery from May’s deadly tornadoes. “We are in the process of switching from cleanup to…
London calling: Baptist wins song contest
By Bob Allen The minister of worship at CBF-affiliated Snyder Memorial Baptist Church in Fayetteville, N.C., is London-bound after winning a worldwide worship music contest. On Tuesday Integrity Music Europe named Giles Blankenship’s “You Are There” winner of its 2013…
Refugees reap blessing after Okla. twisters
By Jeff Brumley It was 97 degrees in Oklahoma City Friday afternoon, and the 22-mph wind made it even hotter as Missourian Amy Heap and her misson team from CrossHaven Church spent hours unloading four box trucks containing furniture. But heat…
Ministry leaders blast whistleblower
By Bob Allen Sovereign Grace Ministries in Louisville, Ky., has released a statement adopted in May by the organization’s leaders commending founder C.J. Mahaney and denouncing a former associate turned vocal critic of the well-known evangelical leader. A website posting…
Georgetown College names new president
By Bob Allen Trustees of the first Baptist college established west of the Allegheny Mountains announced Monday the election of M. Dwaine Greene as 24th president of Georgetown College. Greene, 56, has been academic vice president and provost since 2001…
Trial for gay Baptist minister postponed
By Bob Allen A misdemeanor trespassing trial for a gay Baptist minister and his partner who refused to leave a city clerk’s office after being denied a marriage license was postponed Monday when attorneys were unable to come up with…
Sharing faith through furniture
This story was edited after posting. By Jeff Brumley Twenty-seven families in Moore, Okla., received a combined 325 pieces of furniture Saturday during a church-run furniture distribution for victims of the May tornadoes. Moore resident John Wright described it as just…
ERLC defends sectarian public prayers
By Bob Allen The Southern Baptist Convention Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court Aug. 2 defending prayers offered in Jesus’ name at government meetings. The first legal brief filed since Russell Moore…
Gay minister’s trespassing trial begins
By Bob Allen The trial for an openly gay ordained Baptist minister and his partner arrested in January for refusing to leave a government building where they were denied a marriage license begins today in Louisville, Ky. Pretrial hearings were scheduled…
Baptist ethicist signs abuse petition
By Bob Allen A Southern Baptist ethicist has endorsed an online petition urging greater transparency about sexual abuse occurring in evangelical churches. Ben Mitchell, Graves Professor ofMoral Philosophy at Union University in Jackson, Tenn., added his signature to “A Public…
Mo. youth group safe after bus wreck
By Bob Allen Quick thinking by a church bus driver is credited with saving lives in a July 17 crash at a youth camp in Georgia. Seventeen people were injured when a bus carrying the First Baptist Church of St….
Church loses new pastor to drowning
By Bob Allen A Baptist church in Connecticut is mourning the death of a recently called pastor who died July 29 during a family vacation in Myrtle Beach, S.C. Greg Hamby, 52, pastor of First Baptist Church in Essex, Conn.,…