Baptist News Global

Approval signals Southern Baptist concern for ‘lostness,’ task force says

ORLANDO, Fla. — The Southern Baptist Convention overwhelmingly reaffirmed its intention to spread the gospel throughout the nation and around the world, members of the SBC’s Great Commission Resurgence task force told reporters. At least 75 percent to 80 percent…

Georgia church planter elected SBC president

ORLANDO, Fla. — In a surprise move, Southern Baptists said no to two well-known presidential candidates and elected a church planter from Marietta, Ga., to lead them in the coming year. Bryant Wright, senior pastor of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church…

Executive Committee elects president/CEO

ORLANDO, Fla. (ABP) – The Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention voted in executive session June 14 to elect former SBC President Frank Page as the organization’s next president and CEO, replacing Morris Chapman, who retires Sept. 30 after…

Executive Committee elects Frank Page president in closed session

ORLANDO, Fla. (ABP) – The Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention voted in a closed session June 14 to elect former SBC president Frank Page as the organization’s next president and CEO, replacing Morris Chapman, who retires Sept. 30…

Religious liberty in China improving, still room for progress, leaders say

DALLAS (ABP) — Religious liberty in China is expanding and the Chinese Christian community is growing, according to a leader of China's state-sanctioned church — but American observers continue to hope for more progress. Bao Jiayuan, associate general secretary of…

Louisiana Senate panel shelves guns-in-church bill

BATON ROUGE, La. (ABP) — A Louisiana Senate committee has shelved a controversial bill that would have allowed worshipers to carry concealed weapons inside churches, synagogues and other houses of worship. The state’s Senate Judiciary B Committee voted 3-0 June…

Former Rwandan Baptist pastor convicted of genocide

HELSINKI, Finland (ABP) – A Finnish court has sentenced a former Baptist pastor to life in prison for participating in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, according to the British Broadcasting Corporation. Francois Bazaramba, 59, was a pastor of the Baptist church in…

Missionaries from global South to North face hurdles, speaker says

EDINBURGH, Scotland (ABP) — While Christianity's center of gravity has shifted southward in the past century from Europe and North America, missionaries from the global South are still not welcome as full partners in global evangelism, an African missionary to…

Faith, politics and Mom

By Jim Denison “Never discuss religion or politics in public,” my mother used to warn me. Today’s column probably proves the wisdom of her advice. Last week, USA Today reported that four Christian lawyers who vowed to be God’s ambassadors…

HERITAGE: Return to Mount Hermon

Sixty years ago George H. Lawrence, who was the first full-time pastor of old Mount Hermon Baptist Church in Chesterfield, adjusted his tie, cleared his throat and began to give a radio address over WXGI in Richmond. He was broadcasting…

SBC Executive Committee elects Page as president in executive session

ORLANDO, Fla. (ABP) — The Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention voted in executive session June 14 to elect former SBC President Frank Page as the organization’s next president and CEO, replacing Morris Chapman, who retires Sept. 30 after…

Popular Southern Seminary pastoral-care prof Andy Lester dies

FORT WORTH, Texas (ABP) — Andy Lester, a professor of pastoral care and counseling popular with a generation of Baptists who attended Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in the 1970s and 1980s, died June 10 after a year-long battle with pancreatic…

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