Baptist News Global

New breakout sessions added during BGAV meeting

New breakout sessions during the annual BGAV meeting have been added to those announced earlier and two sessions have been rescheduled. NEW: Panama Partnership, Session #1, 2-3 p.m., Room 203 Panamanian Baptists invite Virginia Baptists to join them in projects…

BGAV REPORTS: Recommendations from the Virginia Baptist Mission Board

Recommendation I 2012 Special Observances and Emphases January 1: Collegiate Ministries Emphasis Day January 15: Sanctity of Human Life Sunday February 12-19: WMU Focus Week February 19: Virginia Baptist Colleges and Schools Day April 8: Cooperative Missions/Cooperative Program Day May…

Va. Baptists commission pamphlet defending church-state separation

RICHMOND, Va. (ABP) — The Virginia Baptist Mission Board has approved a “2010 History Project” to publish a document to correct “certain influential versions of American history [which] … mistakenly minimize or deny the grounding in this nation’s history of the…

Affinity document could guide BGAV’s future

RICHMOND, Va. (ABP) — A document to be considered at next month’s annual meeting of the Baptist General Association of Virginia could provide a guide for expansion of the association's ministry, if adopted by messengers. A proposal from an affinity…

Author, pastor: Old models of church don’t work anymore

WILMINGTON, N.C. (ABP) — Old models of church that view it as a center for multiple programs led by a pastor who shepherds a flock just don’t work in the post-Christendom era, according to an author and pastor. Ronny Russell,…

Unusual prayer meeting proves ministry catalyst for N.C. church

WILMINGTON, N.C. (ABP) — A prayer meeting hosted by a non-church member and featuring speaking in tongues, anointing with oil and the blowing of a ram’s horn might not seem like the typical turning point in the history of a…

Church aims to replicate course-changing experience

WILMINGTON, N.C. (ABP) — Staff members at First Baptist Church in Wilmington, N.C., say their experience at a church conference in Florida helped change their congregation for the better — so they sought to recreate the experience for other churches….

Most pastors oppose endorsing candidates from pulpit

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) — Protestant pastors may hold strong political views, but most don't use their pulpits to tell church members how to vote, according to new data by LifeWay Research. The research arm of the Southern Baptist Convention's publishing…

Judge upholds fines against Baptists in Uzbekistan

OSLO, Norway (ABP) — A judge in Uzbekistan refused Oct. 14 to overturn fines against five Baptists convicted of illegal worship, an international news service that specializes in religious freedom coverage reported Oct. 26. Fines totaling roughly 10 times Uzbekistan's…

Baptist missionaries fight cholera outbreak in Haiti

HAUT-LIMBE, Haiti (ABP) — A medical missionary couple in Haiti jointly appointed by American Baptists and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship say they have not yet treated any cholera cases but are focusing on community education and prevention to halt spread…

The 20-year test

(Editor’s note: Although Bill Wilson’s commentary pieces — written as a column for the Virginia Baptist Religious Herald — have appeared frequently on Associated Baptist Press over the last year, with this edition ABP will begin the regular biweekly publication of his…

HERITAGE: Beneath the oaks

When my automobile rested under the oak trees at Antioch Baptist Church in Charlotte County, Va., it was pelted with giant acorns. They rained like bullets and a person had to run fast to avoid a crack on the head….

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