A Houston megachurch has been in the news due to member concerns about the ways its bylaws were amended and governance was effectively removed from the congregation and entrusted to a small group handpicked by the senior pastor. While this...
LONDON (ABP) – As churches alter or cancel worship services this weekend because Christmas this year falls on Sunday, a Baptist theologian in the United Kingdom says the way the holiday is celebrated is relatively new. Stephen Holmes Stephen Holmes,…
By Bill Leonard As Advent turns to Christmas and the reality of a New Year looms, we revisit that often overlooked post-nativity saga portrayed by innumerable artists as “the flight to Egypt.” Matthew 2:12-14 says that after the Magi left…
By Brett Younger For centuries, Christians have celebrated the birth of Jesus by coming to church to sing, pray, remember, give thanks and recommit our lives to Christ. What were we thinking? This year, with Christmas falling on Sunday, many…
FALLS CHURCH, Va. (ABP) – Leaders of the Baptist World Alliance traveled to Nashville, Tenn., Dec. 19 to meet with leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention, a founding member of the BWA that withdrew in 2004 over theological differences. Initiated…
MOORESVILLE, N.C. (ABP) – Lowe’s officials met Dec. 20 with a group of ministers who hand-delivered more than 200,000 petition signatures protesting the company’s decision to pull its advertising from a television show criticized by a conservative Christian group for…
By Ken Sehested I don’t know what it was that penetrated my groggy reading of the Sunday morning paper, sitting at the kitchen table, the coffee maker’s final perks hacking like a smoker’s cough. Something, subliminally, coming from the radio…
By Elizabeth Evans Hagan “Are we having church on Christmas Day this year?” Such has been a constant question asked at my office door since Thanksgiving. The answer is an enthusiastic “yes, of course we are” (even if the music…
SANTA ANA, Calif. (ABP) – The last remaining evangelical church in Gaza is functioning but in danger of dying, famed Bible smuggler Brother Andrew said after a recent visit to Gaza Baptist Church. Hanna Massad “Christians in the west are…
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (ABP) – Leaders of two large Christian traditions held preliminary conversations Dec. 13-15 to lay groundwork for ecumenical dialogue between Baptists and Pentecostals around the world. Delegations from the Baptist World Alliance and Pentecostal World Fellowship set guidelines…
By Ricky Creech How blessed Baptists are to be known as a missionary people. I love missionaries. They are my heroes, not because they are superhuman or different from me, but because they sacrifice much every day for the cause…
