MOUNT OLIVE, N.C. (ABP)—Nobody in Mount Olive, N.C., was quite prepared for an influx of Haitian immigrants seeking low-paying jobs in area poultry processing plants, but the community’s First Baptist Church viewed the challenge as an opportunity. Dennis Atwood knew…
Haitians push church out of comfort zone
Jeff Brumley Nobody in Mount Olive, N.C., was quite prepared for an influx of Haitian immigrants seeking low-paying jobs in area poultry processing plants, but the community’s First Baptist Church viewed the challenge as an opportunity. Dennis Atwood knew that…
Lee Porter, longtime SBC officer, dies
By Bob Allen Lee Porter, a former Southern Baptist Convention leader who worked to ensure the integrity of voting in contentious ballots for the SBC presidency during a tumultuous era in the nation’s second-largest religious body, died May 17. He…
As Vestal retires, CBF ponders future
By Lance Wallace The 22nd annual Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly June 20-23 in Fort Worth, Texas, features a key vote on the 2012 Task Force report and the final sermon from Daniel Vestal as executive coordinator. More than 1,500…
Baptist ‘Angel’ brings light to Juarez
By John Hall Jose Angel could have left Juarez behind. No more listening to regular reports of violence between rival drug cartels. No more worrying about whether he and his family were safe. He even had a job interview in…
State convention held liable for abuse
By Bob Allen A jury found May 17 that the Florida Baptist Convention is liable for failing to do an adequate background check before recruiting and training a former church planter now in prison for molesting a 13-year-old boy. According…
In unprecedented move, one person to lead both Virginia’s black, white Baptist conventions
RICHMOND, Va.—In an unprecedented move, the president of Virginia’s oldest predominantly white Baptist convention also has been elected the top officer in the state’s oldest historically black Baptist convention. Mark Croston, pastor of East End Baptist Church in Suffolk, Va.,…
2012 Task Force report now online
By Bob Allen The final report of a blue-ribbon task force appointed two years ago to chart a future for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is now available online, giving Fellowship Baptists a month to digest the 24-page document before it…
Editor recovering from bike wreck
By Word and Way Staff Bill Webb, editor of the Missouri Baptist newspaper Word and Way, is recovering in a hospital from serious injuries sustained May 12 in a cycling accident in Jefferson City, Mo. A veteran Baptist journalist who…
Baptist dean eulogizes Chuck Colson
By Bob Allen A Baptist divinity school dean eulogized former Watergate henchman and Prison Fellowship founder Chuck Colson as a man who was not perfect but forgiven and who never forgot Jesus’ words, “I was in prison and you visited…
N.T. Wright asks: Have we gotten heaven all wrong?
NEW YORK (RNS)—The oft-cliched Christian notion of heaven—a blissful realm of harp-strumming angels—has remained a fixture of the faith for centuries. Even as arguments will go on as to who will or won’t be saved, surveys show that a vast…
Chuck Colson’s memorial steeped in prison themes
WASHINGTON (RNS)—Prison Fellowship founder and former Nixon aide Chuck Colson was memorialized May 16 at Washington National Cathedral in a service steeped in Scripture and prayers about prison and redemption. Colson, who died April 21 at the age of 80…