Baptist News Global

Historian urges Cooperative Baptists to reclaim ‘audacious identity’

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (ABP) — Historian Bill Leonard encouraged fellow Baptists to “get over” being embarrassed by their denomination’s often-negative image and instead celebrate their lineage in an “audacious identity” established by their forebears. Leonard, founding dean of Wake Forest University…

Critics say Caner isn’t only ex-Muslim with dubious past

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Liberty University is expected to release a report soon on whether Ergun Caner, president of the school’s Baptist Theological Seminary, fabricated or exaggerated his life story as a former Muslim extremist rescued by Jesus. Caner is no ordinary ex-Muslim….

Southwestern Seminary leaders cut health-care benefits for retirees

FORT WORTH, Texas (ABP) — An organization of retired faculty and staff from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary has asked the school’s trustees to reconsider their recent decision to discontinue providing health insurance coverage at no cost to retirees. But in…

Vestal says CBF may have to recall missionaries

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (ABP) – The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship will be forced to recall missionaries from the field if donations to its annual Offering for Global Missions do not increase next year, CBF Executive Coordinator Daniel Vestal told the CBF Coordinating…

Vestal says CBF will have to recall missionaries unless funding improves

Anti-terrorist police crack down on Baptists in Kazakhstan

OSLO, Norway (ABP) – Anti-terrorist police in at least three regions of Kazakhstan have targeted unregistered Baptists and Muslims in recent months, according to the Norway-based news service Forum 18. The news service, which monitors religious-freedom violations in numerous countries,…

We’re all in Deepwater

By Joseph Perdue As a Floridian, it is especially heart-wrenching and anger-inducing for me to watch the tar balls and oil slicks from BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster advancing inexorably on my state, destined to destroy our abundant wildlife and mar…

Westover children get creative for Pentecost Sunday

Children painting the paraments. For thousands of years people of faith have used special fabrics to decorate sanctuaries and outfit ministers. These dressings, known as paraments, can be functional, ceremonial and celebratory. They often enrich the worship of God by…

From the Eastern Shore to Cumberland Gap

STAFF CHANGES • Rand Forder, to Main Street Church, Emporia, as interim pastor. • Geoffrey H. Fuller, to First Church, Hopewell, as minister to students and families. • Glen Stinnett, to Trinity Church, Martinsville, as minister to youth, children and…

OPINION: The Great Commission Resurgence of the SBC and Virginia Baptists

This is an interesting time in denominational life in North America and even Southern Baptists are feeling the affect of huge changes. In Orlando, at the Southern Baptist Convention, the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force reported that baptism rates among…

VIRAL SIGNS: It goes without saying

Have you learned that nothing “goes without saying” anymore? That sobering truth runs counter to our tendency to think there are some universally shared assumptions that all of us agree upon. We may think that everyone agrees with us about…

OUT LOUD

“God is my assignment editor.” Unnamed obituary editor The quote was included at Overheardinthenewsroom.com, a web site about funny sayings overheard in newsrooms. (RNS) “I prayed multiple times a day, sang hymns with emotion and tears, felt each time that…

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