Baptist News Global

Conservative evangelicals join letter denouncing Trump’s order on refugees

In a highly unusual move, several conservative evangelical leaders took out a full-page advertisement in Wednesday’s Washington Post to denounce President Trump’s executive order temporarily banning refugees, saying they are “deeply concerned.”

You can’t do it all. Choose well.

It was 11 years ago this month that I was diagnosed with preeclampsia. I was not due to deliver my first child until April of that year, and we were not yet two full months into the semester at Baptist…

Focus on passion, not numbers, in nurturing new congregations

Church planting has never been easy, but it seems to be getting a lot harder in an age of nones, dones and young people who just don’t join things. As a result, those new to the field of launching new…

Franklin Graham says God uses ‘extreme vetting,’ welcomes confirmation of attorney general

Evangelist Franklin Graham, on his way to Puerto Rico for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association’s first Festival of Hope event in 2017, said Wednesday on social media that God uses “extreme vetting” in deciding who gets into heaven. “I’m on…

Transitions for the week of 02.10.17

Please submit transitions — including staff changes, ordinations, anniversaries or deaths — to Barbara Francis. This page will be updated weekly. STAFF CHANGES Dennis Bazemore, to Murfreesboro (N.C.) Baptist Church, as interim pastor. Larry Fields, to Smithwood Baptist Church, Knoxville, Tenn.,…

What happened when a black and white church merged in Florida

The congregation at Shiloh — black and white, urban and suburban — appears to be the only intentional joint church of its kind in the United States.

A word of pastoral advice: Don’t Trump the Johnson Amendment

President Trump and the 115th United States Congress would trump this federal law to the peril of both our nation’s political process and the prophetic witness of our nation’s great religions.

Splitting churches right and left

Several years ago I put a self-imposed moratorium on employing the term “separation of church and state.” When I wrote the book Baptist Ways: A History, I don’t think I referenced the phrase unless citing its use in the Baptist…

A not-so-hot reaction to Trump’s promise to fuse church and politics

Donald Trump has vowed to “destroy” federal rules prohibiting religious groups from engaging in partisan politics. Politically conservative Christians may favor the idea of church and state being connected at the hip. They may perceive it as translating into more…

Banned by LifeWay, hip-hop artist says white evangelicals don’t get black culture

A popular hip-hop artist whose album was dropped by Southern Baptist retailer LifeWay Christian Stores after customer complaints says white evangelicals are trying to reach people in urban contexts without understanding their culture. Amisho Baraka Lewis, a 38-year-old Christian hip-hop…

Steve Bannon carries battles to another influential hub: The Vatican

Stephen K. Bannon, a Catholic, has cultivated strategic alliances with those in Rome who share his view that the pope is a dangerously misguided pontiff.

Refusing to quarrel on Facebook, and what to do with new found free time

The first words of Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis read: “Everyone has heard people quarreling. Sometimes it sounds funny and sometimes it sounds merely unpleasant; but however, it sounds I believe we can learn something very important from listening to…

An American experiment: 250 years of trying

10 reasons America is not a ‘Christian nation’

American Dominion traces deep roots of Seven Mountain Mandate

Lindsey Graham and the history of ‘widow’s succession’