Baptist News Global

Murder in pulpit spurs college to host safety workshop for churches

ST. LOUIS (ABP) — The shooting and death of an Illinois Baptist pastor in the middle of a worship service last year brought Steve Heidke face-to-face with the reality that most houses of worship are vulnerable as "soft targets" for…

Baptist schools’ 2010 commencement speakers share nuggets of wisdom

Hillary Wright of Springfield, Ky., celebrates as she gets her Campbellsville University diploma. (PHOTO: Campbellsville/Ashley Zsedenyi) (ABP) — Spring commencement exercises at most schools around the United States are now complete, and new graduates and their well-wishers heard words of…

Former outsider Page nominated to lead SBC Executive Committee

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) — Former Southern Baptist Convention president Frank Page is being nominated as president of the SBC Executive Committee, one of three key leadership positions in the nation's second-largest faith group that are currently in the process of…

Baptist peace group counters NRA convention

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (ABP) — The Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America co-sponsored a "peaceful alternative" to a National Rifle Association national convention that attracted an estimated 70,000 visitors to Charlotte, N.C., May 14-16. Along with North Carolinians Against Gun Violence,…

Former SBC president nominated to lead Executive Committee

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) — Former Southern Baptist Convention President Frank Page is being nominated as president of the SBC Executive Committee, one of three key leadership positions in the nation's second-largest faith group in the process of being filled. According…

Final U.S. Baptist released from Haitian jail

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (ABP) — The last of 10 Americans detained while trying to take 33 children out of Haiti following the Jan. 12 earthquake was released May 17 after a judge found her guilty and sentenced her to time already…

SBC membership decline continued in 2009, but baptisms increased

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) — Membership in the Southern Baptist Convention declined for the third consecutive year in 2009, according to statistics reported May 14 by LifeWay Christian Resources. Southern Baptist churches reported total membership of 16,160,088 in 2009. That is…

Alligators, prime ministers, and pennies

By Jim Denison Authorities in Gulfport, Miss., recently subdued a nearly-13-foot-long weighing 800 pounds. They used a forklift to get the beast out of the water, but first they duct-taped its massive jaws shut. (Who was the first person to…

Last of 10 jailed U.S. Baptist missionaries released from Haiti

Southern Baptist Convention continues to lose members

MBC’s goal is control or assets of remaining litigants, attorneys say

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (ABP) — Regaining control is the heart of the Missouri Baptist Convention’s ongoing legal action against three formerly affiliated institutions. If control cannot be restored, then the convention would like its “stuff” returned, a judge learned May…

Grand jury hears evidence in Texas church-arson cases

Jason Bourque TYLER, Texas (ABP) — A grand jury began hearing testimony May 13 in the case of two men suspected of burning down 10 churches in East Texas in January and February, a television station in Tyler, Texas, reported….

We also need a reckoning with racist words that cut like a knife

How a ‘good kid’ makes a catastrophic choice

‘All we do is believe the Bible,’ Baptist scholars summarize

How anti-vaxxers and evangelicals found common cause