Zombies are hot. They are the new “in” storytelling device. World War Z, loosely based on Max Brooks’s novel of the same name, is the latest to make use of the walking dead as a metaphor. The story focuses on…
OPINION: What now?
The news has finally broken. The most anticipated Supreme Court decisions in a long time were finally released last week. A sharply divided court has ruled that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional as far as its implications for…
Intentional communities inspire, scare
By Jeff Brumley Intentional, service-focused Christian communities are getting a lot of buzz in the emergent and missional movements these days, and they’re catching the eye of Baptist groups like the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. But the movement – sometimes called…
Carter says faith used against women
By Bob Allen The abuse of women is “the most pervasive and unaddressed human-rights violation on Earth,” and too often justified in the name of religion, former President Jimmy Carter said at a June 27-29 conference at the Carter Center…
Paynter unveils vision for ‘CBF 2.0’
This story was edited after posting to correct an error in the 13th paragraph. By Bob Allen The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s new executive coordinator said supporting churches face a choice: “We can be alone, or we can be an even…
CBF orients new leadership groups
By Bob Allen As most of the 2,327 registrants for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s 2013 General Assembly packed suitcases and departed Greensboro, N.C., for home, a few dozen individuals lingered Saturday morning for orientation in the Fellowship’s newly minted governing…
Historian tackles believer’s baptism
By Jeff Brumley Baptist historian Bill Leonard waded into the troubled waters of believer’s baptism June 28, but told his audience it’s really another issue that should be engaging them. “We have to rediscover what it means to say we…
CBF head Suzii Paynter says organizational changes will move Fellowship forward
GREENSBORO (ABP) — Cooperative Baptist Fellowship executive coordinator Suzii Paynter described a “vortex of change” during her first 121 days in office in her report to the final meeting of group’s 22-year-old Coordinating Council June 26. “It’s been a whirlwind,”…
CBF leaders hope strategic changes signal a new day for the group as it grapples with identity
GREENSBORO (ABP) — The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship “embraced the challenge of change” during the past 12 months, CBF Moderator Keith Herron said in his report to the 2013 General Assembly June 28 in Greensboro. Last year’s General Assembly in Fort…
Baptist Women in Ministry celebrates 30 years of a movement ‘started with a sense of outrage’
GREENSBORO (ABP) — Baptist Women in Ministry celebrated its 30th anniversary June 26 in a packed auditorium at First Baptist Church in Greensboro in conjunction with the June 26-28 Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly. “Tonight we have come here to…
‘Dawnings’ is spiritual formation for churches, not a strategic plan, CBF leaders say
GREENSBORO (ABP) — Dawnings, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s new missional process for congregations, is about discerning God’s will for churches and ministries, Bo Prosser, coordinator of missional congregations, said during a presentation about the system in Greensboro. What it is…
At 81, North Carolina Baptist joins Moral Monday protests
GREENSBORO (ABP) — When Baptist Jacqueline Allen of Chapel Hill began participating this month in the Moral Monday protests against the Republican-led North Carolina legislature, she got a loving-but-firm admonition from her daughter and son-in-law: don’t get arrested. “An 81-year-old…