NORFOLK — Two Baptist associations — one in Virginia’s highly-urbanized Hampton Roads, the other on the state’s rural Eastern Shore — have merged to form a new network of 96 churches. At separate meetings in mid-April, representatives of the Norfolk…
Baptist leaders combat mental illness, suicide
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (RNS) — Frank Page, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, was getting ready to work in the yard in the fall of 2009 when the phone rang. His daughter was on the line. Daddy, I love you,…
Baptist leaders, with personal experiences, tackle the stigma of mental illness and suicide
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (RNS) — Frank Page, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, was getting ready to work in the yard in the fall of 2009 when the phone rang. His daughter was on the line. Daddy, I love you,…
County boards in Md., NC. challenged over official sectarian prayers, joining others in region
Two more county governing boards in the Mid-Atlantic are under fire for giving preference to Christian prayers in opening official meetings. The two counties — one in Maryland, the other in North Carolina — join a growing number of others…
Ministry gets artsy with fundraising
By Daniel Wallace The Christian mandate to fight poverty is as old as Scripture, but doing it requires constant creativity. “We recognize that we can’t rely on any one source of funds or any one way of doing things to…
Woman named to lead British Baptists
By Bob Allen Forty-eight-year-old Lynn Green was elected May 4 as general secretary of the Baptist Union of Great Britain. The first woman to hold the post, she replaces Jonathan Edwards, who steps down in July after seven years. Green…
Full text of open letter from Ginter Park pastor Mandy England Cole to Richmond Baptist Association
On May 5, pastor Mandy England Cole of Ginter Park Baptist Church sent the following open letter to the “staff, executive council and churches of the Richmond Baptist Association.” This week staff and leaders of the Richmond Baptist Association paid…
Ginter Park pastor sends open letter as a quarter of Richmond association churches consider leaving
RICHMOND — Seven weeks after the Richmond Baptist Association narrowly voted to retain the membership of a church which ordained a gay man to the ministry, about a quarter of the association’s congregations have ended ties with it or are…
Disaster ministry: calling or compulsion?
By Jeff Brumley Leaders of faith-based disaster-recovery agencies say there’s nothing like calamity to invigorate a Christian’s faith. Pastors of churches where disasters strike have noticed a difference in people, too. “Whether it’s man-made or something from nature, I think…
‘iFaith’ explored at Baylor symposium
By Ken Camp Social media may link people across the globe, while at the same time segmenting them generationally, one of American’s foremost scholars on technology and the church told an April 29 gathering at Baylor University’s George W. Truett…
Baptist historian Leon McBeth dies
By Bob Allen H. Leon McBeth, a Baptist historian and scholar who authored nine books, died April 29 at age 81. McBeth, retired chair of the history department at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, received numerous awards for his contributions to…
Despite biblical injunctions to the contrary, Christians remain obsessed with end times
Just because Jesus told his disciples God alone knows when he will return, that hasn’t prevented 2,000 years of Christian speculation. “Some have said: ‘Jesus just said we can’t know the day or the hour. But that doesn’t mean we…