Baptist News Global

Should Baptist churches adopt open membership? No.

By James Leo Garrett Baptists have not always agreed among themselves on doctrinal or ethical issues, but they have had some common beliefs that they have defended and on which they have been united. When one of these is challenged…

Visiting an old Landmark

By Bob Allen Like a lot of long-time church members, when I move to a new town I look for a home church with a worship style and doctrinal stance similar to where I have attended in the past. Moving…

FAITH DIGEST

British army “targeting” mosques? Muslims in England are demanding the British army apologize for using apparent replicas of mosques for target practice on a firing range. The Bradford Council for Mosques, whose area is populated heavily by Muslims, claims the…

African-American churches see a revival of cooperation

WASHINGTON (RNS) — In Chicago, black Baptists announced they would raise $50 million for health clinics, schools and reconstructed churches in earthquake-devastated Haiti. In South Carolina, three black Methodist denominations launched a plan to host Saturday academies nationwide to mentor…

RIGHT or WRONG? Water as a weapon

James Workman has written a book, Heart of Dryness: How the Last Bushmen Can Help Us Endure the Coming Age of Permanent Drought. Is this another example of the paradoxical nature of simplified living, only applied on a global scale?…

FIRST PERSON: Revisiting an old Landmark

Like a lot of long-time church members, when I move to a new town I look for a home church with a worship style and doctrinal stance similar to where I have attended in the past. Moving a few years…

Churches try varied ways to approach question of membership and baptism

Baptism and local church membership have been inextricably linked historically in the minds of many Baptists. But that view is shifting as a decline in denominational loyalty and the easy movement of American Christians among churches of all stripes have…

ANALYSIS: Should Baptist churches adopt open membership? No.

Baptists have not always agreed among themselves on doctrinal or ethical issues, but they have had some common beliefs that they have defended and on which they have been united. When one of these is challenged or rejected, the Baptist…

ANALYSIS: Should Baptist churches adopt open membership? Yes.

The Baptist movement began 400 years ago with the self-baptism of John Smyth, but the roots of immersion lie beyond that first gathered community whose mode was affusion, or pouring. Edward Barber was probably the first to embrace believer’s baptism…

ANALYSIS: Baptism — essential sacrament or symbolic ordinance?

One of the distinguishing marks of the people of God called Baptists, across our 400 years of witness, has been our strong affirmation of believer’s baptism, which is rooted in our high view of Christ’s authority in Scripture. When Jesus…

Let ’em ring: Federal court says church bells are legal religious expression

WASHINGTON (RNS) — A federal court on April 19 ruled an ordinance in Phoenix, Ariz., trying to limit the sound of church bells is an unconstitutional impingement on religious expression. In 2007, one day after Christ the King Cathedral moved…

Hundreds gather to remember Cecil Sherman

RICHMOND, Va. (ABP) — Friends and family members of Cecil Sherman filled the spacious sanctuary of River Road Church, Baptist, in Richmond, Va., April 20 to celebrate his life in the first of two scheduled memorial services. “We seem to…

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