Baptist News Global

Transitions for the week of 2-9-24

Please submit transitions — including staff changes, ordinations, anniversaries or deaths — to Barbara Francis. This page will be updated bi-weekly. STAFF CHANGES Jacob Boyd, concluding his tenure as associate pastor of students and discipleship at First Baptist Church, Springfield, Va.,…

Hope for divided churches glimmers at the Grammys

I cried Sunday night watching two seemingly different individuals perform one of my favorite songs together. I love music and look forward to the Grammy Awards every year. While I love celebrating my favorite artists and watching about half the…

Politics, faith and mission: A conversation with Ty Seidule

The Lost Cause myth is the original Big Lie, building on cultural, historical and religious elements of culture to try to create (or recreate) a world where white men reign supreme and some version of America is Great Again. One…

Yes, technology has become more critical for U.S. churches since pandemic

The outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020 prompted lasting changes in the ways U.S. religious groups use technology in congregational life, according to a new study by Hartford Institute for Religion Research. “The pandemic necessitated innovation in how congregations connect with…

Tomorrow, Supreme Court hears arguments on barring Trump from ballots

On Thursday, Feb. 8, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments on a simple question with profound historical consequences: “Did the Colorado Supreme Court err in ordering President Trump excluded from the 2024 presidential primary ballot?” Colorado’s justices ruled in…

Morris Chapman is willing to come off the bench and serve the SBC Executive Committee again

As the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee struggles to find a leader and faces attempts by other agency heads to shutter the central organizing group of the denomination, a former president says he is willing to come back and help…

Ministry jobs and more

Baptist News Global provides a free listing of ministry-related jobs for Baptist churches, theological institutions and organizations across the United States. Each free posting is for 30 days and is limited to 150 words. Postings may be extended another 30…

Saga of Little Rock church’s conflict over sexual abuse claims still making headlines

Conflict over sexual abuse claims at one of the largest Southern Baptist churches in Arkansas continues to make front-page headlines in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, which has published 25 articles about Immanuel Baptist Church since December. Seven of those articles have…

New lawsuit against SBC and four churches alleges systemic negligence on sexual abuse

The concept of whether the Southern Baptist Convention is a unified church that can be held liable for sexual abuse that happens in individual congregations will be put to the test yet again in a new lawsuit filed in U.S….

Study finds America’s faithful are philanthropists

People and institutions of faith helped reshape American philanthropy in 2023 despite the nation’s daunting economic, political and social challenges, according to the latest “Giving in Faith” report from Givelify and the Lake Institute on Faith and Giving. The survey…

How might the SBC reshape itself next?

Calls for structural change are once again in the air among Southern Baptist Convention insiders, opening the door to possibilities that could significantly reshape the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. Last summer, messengers to the SBC annual meeting took the unusual…

Immigration advocates offer blistering assessment of Senate immigration bill

Immigrant rights groups responded mostly with blistering condemnations to a new U.S. Senate supplemental funding plan that proposes major changes to U.S. immigration and asylum policies in exchange for military aid to Ukraine and Israel. While the $118 billion measure…

Y’all means all

Religious liberty ‘is not a sword to harm others,’ Laser says

The stories we tell define us

Whatever happened to heaven?