Baptist News Global

Baptist pastor, author Rick Warren invited to speak in North Korea

LAKE FOREST, Calif. (ABP) — North Korean officials have invited best-selling author and Southern Baptist pastor Rick Warren to preach to at least 15,000 people in the communist country, a spokesperson from Warren's Saddleback Church confirmed July 5. The spokesperson…

Baptist churches unite to rebuild New Orleans congregations

NEW ORLEANS (ABP) — Pastor Lawrence Gaines has spent $35,000 of his personal retirement funds to help restore his church building, which was devastated by Hurricane Katrina. “We've gotten to the point now where we just don't have any other…

American Baptists’ Ottawa University names Fred Snow new president

OTTAWA, Kan. (ABP) — Vermont educator Fred Snow has become the new president of Ottawa University in Kansas, one of the largest schools affiliated with American Baptist Churches USA. Snow, who worked for 10 years as vice president and dean…

What Must Be Said About Iraq

Last week the House voted to affirm the war in Iraq and to reject the establishment of any withdrawal date at this time. This week the Senate continues to debate the issue. In light of these developments, and after finishing…

CBF participants focus on future at 16th gathering

With a call to minister to “a world in need,” the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship began its 16th year by appointing 19 mission workers, welcoming a new missions coordinator, adopting a $17-million budget and contributing $32,801 to a special human rights…

New CBF missions chief attends Virginia Baptist church

Chalk it up to the oddities of Baptist denominational life at the beginning of the 21st century. Rob Nash, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's new global missions coordinator, has never lived in Virginia — but he's a member of a Baptist…

VBMB staff has exhibit booth at CBF’s General Assembly

Participants at this year's Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's General Assembly had direct access to the ministries of the Virginia Baptist Mission Board — perhaps the first time a state Baptist convention has maintained a presence at the CBF's annual meeting. Dee…

Jesus’s ministry prompts focus on immigration, say Hispanics

The central question in the debate on immigration reform is not about economics or politics, Hispanic Baptist leaders said June 23. “The basic issue is whether Jesus still has a mission to the poor,” Albert Reyes, president of Baptist University…

‘Information integrity’ essential to world citizenship, Nash tells ABP audience

Rob Nash, one day after being elected global missions coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, urged about 300 Baptists at an Associated Baptist Press banquet to pursue “information integrity” on their way to becoming “citizens of the world.” In his…

Leave ‘Christendom’ thinking behind, says BWA’s Lotz

Western Baptists need to leave Christendom behind and become more like the early church, Denton Lotz told about 150 persons attending a Baptist World Alliance dinner June 23. Lotz, who is general secretary of the BWA, said many Westerners still…

Baptist politics ‘wreaking havoc’ on universities, warns Godsey

Baptist higher education faces a monumental crisis, due in large part to abuses of control and financial dependence, longtime university president Kirby Godsey told participants at the Whitsitt Baptist Heritage Society's annual meeting June 22 in Atlanta. Godsey will retire…

Methodist numbers drop below 8 million

(RNS) — A United Methodist Church report says church membership dipped to a new low last year, dropping to under 8 million in the United States for the first time in nearly 80 years. The church's General Council on Finance…

Rise of American authoritarianism demands a choice, Perryman says

Shaving Dad goodbye

The Enhanced Games were another MAGA grift

It’s bad interpretation, not the Bible, limiting female pastors