Baptist News Global

Calif. pastor/seminary president to join SBC presidential field

SAN FRANCISCO (ABP) — Bill Wagner, California college president and pastor who also was a long-time employee of the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board, has said he will run for the SBC presidency next year. Wagner, who wrote How…

Race: The final frontier

When Anglos, Hispanics, African-Americans and Nigerians gather in the same place on Sunday morning, planning worship presents challenges. “Its a lot more than just a question of hymns or choruses,” said Charlie Brown, pastor of The Crossing Baptist Church in…

Opportunities, challenges confront increasingly multi-ethnic congregation

DALLAS—Soon after Pastor Bruce Troy arrived at Gaston Oaks Baptist Church in Dallas, he challenged a group in the congregation to answer one question: “What would you do if God put 100 people on your doorstep?” Three years later, Troy…

Aging minister recalls price paid for recognizing God’s image in all people

HILLICOTHE, Mo.—When Norman Shands made a vow to God 65 years ago, he couldn't have imagined that it would thrust him into the center of the Civil Rights Movement in Atlanta. The vow—that he would view and treat every person…

Baptists active on both sides in the Little Rock integration battle

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (ABP)—The story of Lakeshore Drive Baptist Church in Little Rock, Ark., encapsulates the little-recounted role that white Baptists played during the Civil Rights Movement—on both sides. The church owes its existence to the 1957-59 struggle to integrate…

Transformed: YEC premiers new name, location

More than 1,250 Virginia Baptists flocked to Richmond in August for the annual youth evangelism conference — now called Youth Encounter. About 160 made professions of faith or commitments to Christian service during the two days. Alice Rusher Starfield, an…

FIRST PERSON: Special needs ministry makes difference at church

RUCKERSVILLE, Va. — The special needs ministry at Spring Hill Baptist Church in Ruckersville is exciting, vibrant and growing. But it hasn't always been that way. When my family moved here nearly seven years ago so I could join the…

VIRGINIA BRIEFS

Virginia Baptist Library Association plans conference. VBLA has announced plans for its fall conference, to be held Oct. 12-13 at First Baptist Church in Richmond, focusing on the theme “The Church Library—Treasury of the Past, Key to the Future.” The…

2ND OPINION: I was a stranger and you took me in

I remember so many occasions when I was a stranger in a foreign land. I traveled over Latin America and the rest of the world as a missionary with the International Mission Board, serving as a consultant in the use…

‘The Negro problem’

It was a “sunny, balmy and bracing” day in Lynchburg in late February 1883 when about 300 persons gathered for the first Congress of Virginia Baptists. For several days ministers and laypersons listened to lectures on various issues of the…

Ethicists debate morality of enhancing genetics

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Scientists already know which genes are responsible for particular illnesses, and clinical trials are under way to find new treatments for genetically based diseases. But, ethicists ask, what if this newfound genetic knowledge is used not only to cure,…

Minorities flocking to multi-ethnic campus groups for fellowship

DALLAS (ABP)—Anglo students continue to primarily populate college evangelical organizations, but ethnic minority students have started to join them in increasing numbers. Two of the nation's largest parachurch campus evangelical organizations, Campus Crusade for Christ and InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA, stress…

Islamophobia is the next bogeyman

The Black Church cannot remain America’s emergency moral infrastructure

We are manna

Webinar explores religious context of America’s Founders