Baptist News Global

How (not) to be a pastor: A confession of sorts

The failure of a church, at least according to the belief system baked into our American religiosity, is the personal failure of a pastor. As I’ve seen more and more of my friends (and myself) self-immolate in the face of institutional malaise, I’ve been wondering if the problem for most of us clergy folk is rooted in something a bit more elemental than a lack of training in millennial worship preferences and successfully interacting with people on your church Facebook page.

With new CBF policy, there’s space for some but not for all

I do not expect a denominational body to reinforce all aspects of my conscience any more than I expect a congregation to match my convictions in every way. Most people don’t expect a perfect match — just space to grow together. So I’m not bothered by a conviction that differs from mine. I am bothered by the centrality given to a conviction that makes no space.

10 things we’re learning about the LGBTQ debate in the church

Our congregation went through 18 months of intense study, prayer and dialogue about LGBTQ inclusion, and we have the scars to show for it. And we would have had scars regardless of which way the decision went. But we are better for choosing the good over the easy.

Two LGBTQ-inclusive churches reevaluating relationship with CBF following adoption of new hiring policy

Pastors of at least two Cooperative Baptist Fellowship churches say they are reconsidering affiliation with the 1,800-church network in light of a decision by CBF leaders to relax, but not totally lift, a ban on hiring LBGTQ people.

Vatican agreement with China could ‘deal blow’ to Catholic church, say some leaders

The Catholic church risks damaging its moral authority and plunging its followers into confusion if the Vatican presses ahead with an with the Chinese government, a group of influential Catholics has warned.

The Christian who cried ‘abortion’

By elevating and blindly submitting to a single-issue politic, Christians endorse corrupt and immoral leaders and opt into ideological hypocrisy to uphold it. The risk for Christians is the loss of all ability to think in nuanced ways. It forces black-and-white thinking that moralizes some politicians based on a single belief.

How our church doubled our Wednesday night attendance in one week

If Sunday and midweek attendance patterns are not going back to the 1950s, then every church should consider creative ways to engage people in the culture as it exists, not the culture in which our grandparents lived.

David Platt is ready to leave the Southern Baptist Convention’s international mission agency

David Platt announced Feb. 12 that he will end his three-and-a-half-year tenure as president of the SBC International Mission Board to focus only his role as teaching pastor at a DC-area megachurch, a role he took on last year.

Like God, hip-hop gives voice to the oppressed, Chicago preacher says

Jonathan Brooks was introduced to faith growing up in a Missionary Baptist church on Chicago’s Southside. But he met Jesus through Christian hip hop. “For me, it’s always been the fact that [hip-hop] was a voice for the marginalized and for the oppressed,” Brooks says. And the same, he adds, is true about God.

The Michigan town where only Christians are allowed to buy houses

Bay View is for many an idyllic community, but a lawsuit will test its rule that only practicing Christians can own property

CBF & LGBTQ Baptists: Thanks for the Illumination

Illumination makes things clearer for those willing to look where the light is shining. And these are a few lessons I’ve learned from the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s Illumination Project.

Illuminations: The healing space between ‘good’ and ‘bad’

While scrolling through the pages of the Illumination Project Committee report, my opinion pile began to grow: Good decision; bad decision. I like this; I don’t like that. This is progressive; that is regressive. But as I quieted my own internal committee and let myself become still, I felt the Spirit pressing a cool cloth to my fevered, dualistic mind. “God is at work and more will be revealed” is the word that came.

Supreme Court slides into partisanship

Before the fireworks, be careful what you drink

The contemptible case of Clarence Thomas

The permanent paradoxes of Christian thinking about war