RIDGECREST, N.C. — A proposed solar energy project on the grounds of a Baptist conference center in western North Carolina will be considered at a public hearing Jan. 9 in Asheville, after the state’s utilities commission received complaints about the…
Tennessee Baptist leader says goodbye
By Bob Allen A past president of the Tennessee Baptist Convention who served on numerous key committees over the years is saying goodbye to attendance at annual meetings, explaining the organization has become so theologically narrow that it is no…
VITAL SIGNS: Christmas lessons
Our current Christmas celebration habits are a uniquely post-World War II phenomena. Much of the excess we experience stands at odds with the way Western society approached the holiday only a few years ago. This shift has lessons for any…
Spiritual wisdom in 140 characters or less
(RNS) — The Dalai Lama has 5,702,736 followers on Twitter. How many people does he follow? Zero. Pope Benedict XVI plans to start tweeting on Dec. 12. His Twitter handle is @Pontifex, which means “bridge builder” in Latin. Benedict hasn’t…
Spiritual wisdom in 140 characters or less
(RNS) — The Dalai Lama has 5,702,736 followers on Twitter. How many people does he follow? Zero. Pope Benedict XVI plans to start tweeting on Dec. 12. His Twitter handle is @Pontifex, which means “bridge builder” in Latin. Benedict hasn’t…
Seattle church holds group wedding
By Bob Allen Twenty-five same-sex couples exchanged vows in a group wedding ceremony at First Baptist Church in Seattle Dec. 9, the first day that gays could legally marry in Washington State. Hundreds of couples stood in lines on Thursday…
Trailblazing Baptist woman turns 100
By Jeff Brumley It was a cold winter’s night in 1971 when 6-year-old Monica Phillips developed a terrible earache on a family visit to Abilene, Texas. “I had these earaches fairly often and they were quite painful,” Phillips recalled. But…
At strategic time for China, CBFVA aims to ‘build bridge’ with growing Christian churches there
RICHMOND — The dramatic growth of Christian churches in China is drawing the attention of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Virginia, which is aiming in its 20th anniversary year to “build a bridge” to the strategic nation and its millions…
Megan Dibble, daughter of longtime youth ministry strategist Ken Dibble, died Nov. 30
ASHEVILLE — Megan Elizabeth Dibble, 30, daughter of longtime Virginia Baptist youth ministry strategist Ken Dibble and his wife, Sherlyn, died Nov. 30. Meghan Dibble A native of Charlotte, Dibble was a graduate of the Collegiate School in Richmond and…
At strategic time for China, CBFVA aims to ‘build bridge’ with growing Christian churches there
RICHMOND — The dramatic growth of Christian churches in China is drawing the attention of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Virginia, which is aiming in its 20th anniversary year to “build a bridge” to the strategic nation and its millions…
Church eyes apartment complex for expansion but ‘God had other ideas’ — including a clinic
GREENVILLE, N.C. — What started as part of Oakmont Baptist Church’s ministry to its next-door neighbors has grown into a free medical clinic that helps people from across North Carolina’s Pitt County. The church’s approach to missions was transformed after…
HERITAGE: The mystery of the porcelain cat
When this columnist visited First Baptist Church in Raleigh, he met Frances Ward Brooks, who pulled out of her pocketbook a small piece of blue and white china, a figurine of a porcelain cat. She remembered that in her childhood…