Baptist News Global

Bluefield graduate key in effort to stop sex abuse

BLUEFIELD, Va.—The Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance, a coalition committed to ending sexual and domestic violence, recently named Bluefield College alumna Judy Casteele as one of the industry’s “Top 30 Most Influential People.” In celebration of its 30th…

EDITORIAL: ObamaCare might go away but the problem wonâ€™t

Although it may not be decided fully until June, soon we will have a good idea of how the Supreme Court will rule on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, otherwise called ObamaCare. At this point in its deliberations…

TRENDING: Three venue trends

The past three decades brought a proliferation of where congregations assemble in the United States. What can we expect in the coming decade? 1. Increasing importance of church buildings. John Chandler “Here is the church, here is the steeple; open…

LEADERSHIP LINK: Larry Leader watches and learns

t all started with a Yogi Berra quote, of all things. After another long day on the job, Larry Leader is watching a little TV. His small construction business is beginning to pick up again but finding new jobs feels…

LEADERSHIP LINK: Churches lost $1.2 billion in recession

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Even as membership remains relatively stable in U.S. churches, the effects of the recession have caused contributions to drop by $1.2 billion. According to the 2012 Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches, the almost $29 billion contributed by church…

LEADERSHIP LINK: Getting to the core of a church budget

Baptists are starting a ministry for this, a committee for that, and taking a missions trip here or there. It all looks good—but in the end, finance committees are crunching the numbers and, whoops—the money isn’t there. Again. “Churches lack…

OUT LOUD

“If you don’t love America, if you don’t like the way we do things, I have one thing to say—get out! We don’t worship Buddha … we don’t worship Muhammad, we don’t worship Allah, we worship God, we worship God’s…

LEADERSHIP LINK: Report says church giving on the rebound

WASHINGTON (RNS)—The recession and a sluggish recovery have made for a lighter collection plate in recent years, but a new study shows that giving to U.S. congregations bounced back in 2011 as the economy improved. According to the fourth annual…

OPINION: Diversity, unity and reconciliation

“God bless you if you do, God help you if you don’t.” These words came as a challenge from Neville Callam, general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance during his Friday sermon at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina’s…

VITAL SIGNS: The rise of church discipline

Have you noticed our tendency to try and control others with rules? We started with Ten Commandments. That led to Jewish scholars noting that the Torah actually contains 613 commandments, which can be divided into 365 “negative commandments,” and 248…

LETTER: Mired in cultural perceptions

One of the cultural perceptions in which we are mired in the 21st century is that we are superior to those who have gone before. That comes across in your opinion column in the March 5 issue [“Politics as usual?”]….

WINN RECOMMENDS

First Corinthians, Richard Hays (WJK) Hays is best known as an ethicist, penning the now classic Moral Vision of the New Testament. With this volume, however, Hays brings his ethical vision to the task of interpreting I Corinthians, a biblical…

The wicked are punished — or not

What Ryan Burge sees in America’s megachurches

We are a nation of immigrants

As worldwide deaths mount, Musk insists DOGE cuts didn’t kill anyone