Baptist News Global

Baptist school cancels mission trip for church dismissed from SBC

FORT WORTH, Texas (ABP) — A Kentucky Baptist university has, at the last minute, withdrawn its invitation to host a youth mission team from Texas after the Southern Baptist Convention disfellowshipped their church for its toleration of homosexuals. Brent Beasley,…

Riverside pastor resigns after short tenure

NEW YORK (ABP) — A Baptist minister and former Wake Forest Divinity School professor has resigned just nine months after becoming senior pastor of New York’s Riverside Church, a historic congregation identified with the 20th-century Social Gospel movement that downplayed…

Moderator urges CBF to celebrate movement

HOUSTON (ABP) — Following a year of financial hardship, the moderator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellow-ship urged the group’s general assembly to celebrate the movement’s success and potential for the future. Jack Glasgow, pastor of Zebulon Baptist Church in Zebulon,…

CBF a work of God’s grace, Vestal insists

HOUSTON (ABP) — Nearly 20 years after its founding as a small breakaway group birthed by controversy in the Southern Baptist Convention, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship exists today as a work of God’s grace, the group’s top executive said. CBF…

Leonard: Baptists must express ideals in new ways

HOUSTON — Baptist denominational systems across the United States are in transition and being redefined, spawning a number of issues that are complicating and clouding the Baptist landscape, historian Bill Leonard told a group of Associated Baptist Press supporters July…

BAPTIST BRIEFS

American Baptists reject restructuring. Delegates to the American Baptist Churches USA biennial meeting in Pasadena, Calif., torpedoed a major restructuring backed by denominational officials but criticized by some leaders and churches. They voted 377-217 in favor of the bylaws changes…

Religious liberty demands constant vigilance, congressman insists

HOUSTON — An advocate in the U.S. Congress for church-state separation thanked Baptists for their contributions to religious liberty and reminded them of the need to continue defending the wall of separation. “I have seen too often the political temptations…

Highest freedom is freely giving self to God, Baptist historian says

HOUSTON — Baptists must aspire to the kind of freedom that leads them to relinquish their autonomy to God, historian Walter Shurden told participants at the William H. Whitsitt Baptist Heritage Society’s annual meeting. Shurden received the society’s 2009 Courage…

Ministry network recognized, hailed as emerging trend at commissioning service

HOUSTON — Participants at a commissioning service held in conjunction with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship general assembly not only prayed for six field personnel assuming new assignments, but also recognized representatives of a ministry network serving in China. Pastor Steve…

CBF adopts budget, acknowledges ‘difficult fiscal year’

HOUSTON (ABP) — The Cooperative Baptist Fellow-ship adopted a $16.15 million budget but will begin the 2009-2010 fiscal year spending at 80 percent of projected income, anticipating continued reduced giving due to the economy. “It will come as no surprise…

Young pastors urge CBF supporters to ‘embrace the world’

HOUSTON (ABP) — Participants at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship general assembly heard a visceral call to embrace the world — and all their neighbors — in worship. Taylor Sandlin, pastor of Southland Baptist Church in San Angelo, Texas, helps participants…

FAITH DIGEST

German Muslims more numerous than suspected. Germany has nearly a million more Muslims than previous estimates, a new study showed. The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees in Germany concluded up to 4.3 million people — 5 percent of Germany’s…

Matthew Vines sets off a debate over what it means to be ‘queer’

Dear Mike Johnson, be careful what you ask for

What, to the white Christian, is America 250?

Four years later, anti-abortionists battle on other fronts