By Bob Allen After 10 years of litigation, the head of the Missouri Baptist Foundation says it is time for Missouri Baptist Convention leaders to discuss compromise in an ongoing legal battle between the two organizations over who gets to…
Va. church under fire for gay ordination
By Robert Dilday A leadership committee has asked a Richmond congregation to withdraw its Baptist General Association of Virginia membership in the wake of the church’s Sept. 16 ordination of an openly gay man to the ministry. If Ginter Park…
Virginia Baptist committee asks Richmond church to end affiliation after ordination of gay man
LYNCHBURG, Va. — A key committee has asked a Richmond congregation to withdraw its Baptist General Association of Virginia membership in the wake of the church’s Sept. 16 ordination to the ministry of an openly gay man. If Ginter Park…
Group asks AP to stop using ‘illegal’ label
By Bob Allen A Christian social-justice organization has called on the Associated Press to stop labeling undocumented immigrants “illegal” in the Associated Press Stylebook, a Bible for reporting and editing decisions used by news media across the United States. Sojourners,…
Syrian war victims focus of BWA aid
By Jeff Brumley The Baptist World Alliance is appealing for donations to aid its partners inside Syria to deliver humanitarian assistance to victims of civil war. The continuing rise in violence and suffering sparked the appeal the organization issued on…
Man found guilty of killing Texas pastor
By Bob Allen Two Baptist churches in Texas gained some closure Oct. 8 with a conviction in the murder of a 28-year-old mission pastor committed during a church robbery in March 2011. A Tarrant County jury deliberated about an hour…
Two Texas schools challenge Obamacare
By Ken Camp East Texas Baptist University and Houston Baptist University have filed the latest legal challenge to a preventative services mandate in the Affordable Care Act signed into law by President Obama in 2010. The two Texas Baptist schools…
Online community as missions field
By Jeff Brumley Jim Somerville pastors a Baptist congregation in Virginia that, thanks to the Internet, includes people living in Austria, India and Slovakia. And now, he learned recently, some guy in Iowa. “He said ‘I tune in online and…
VITAL SIGNS: Curbing an epidemic
There is a consistent theme in the conversations I have with clergy and laity alike about what frustrates or challenges them most. Without a doubt it is: Staff. Every pastor’s gathering in which we ask for issues that need attention…
BGAV budget proposal would reduce allocations in 2013
LYNCHBURG, Va. — The Baptist General Association of Virginia will consider in November a slightly reduced overall budget for 2013 which significantly decreases allocations for most of its partner agencies while increasing by about 6.5 percent funding for ministries of its…
Lawmaker defends slavery comments
By Bob Allen A Southern Baptist state legislator in Arkansas is standing by a self-published book he wrote in 2009 where he suggests that slavery may have been a blessing in disguise for African-Americans. Republican State Rep. Jon Hubbard, a…
Passport taps Va. minister for new post
By Robert Dilday Dale Tadlock, an associate pastor in Virginia and current president of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship youth ministry network, has been named coordinator of a new provider of curriculum resources developed by Passport Inc., a Birmingham, Ala.-based student…