Baptist News Global

Transitions for the week of 1-26-24

Please submit transitions — including staff changes, ordinations, anniversaries or deaths — to Barbara Francis. This page will be updated bi-weekly. STAFF CHANGES Spencer Dillard, to Mechanicsville (Va.) Baptist Church, as interim pastor. Kyle Dobyns, to Taylorsville Baptist Church, Doswell, Va.,…

SBC’s ‘conservative resurgence’ has brought two decades of baptism declines

The year conservatives consolidated control of the Southern Baptist Convention is the last year a key marker of denominational growth showed an overall upward trend, according to new annual data released by Lifeway Christian Resources. Even a slight rebound in…

More evangelical leaders on board Trump train for 2024

Growing numbers of conservative evangelical leaders are on board the Trump train as the former president chugs his way toward the 2024 GOP nomination. And those numbers could increase more now that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has dropped out of…

U.S. Capitol hosts first screening of ‘God + Country’ documentary

To better understand the events of the January 6 insurrection, you have to understand the role Christian nationalism played in that fateful day. A new film explores the upsurge of religious extremism and its potential dangers to our nation. God…

Alabama legislator seeks to duplicate Texas law on school ‘chaplains’ even as resistance grows in Texas

The campaign against a new Texas law permitting school districts to hire unlicensed chaplains is gaining momentum just as Alabama legislators prepare to debate an identical measure in their upcoming session. The Texas statute went into effect in September and…

Where have all the evangelical convictions gone?

Merriam-Webster Dictionary says it like this: A person of conviction means you seriously spend time considering whether what you are doing is right or wrong. People with weak convictions tend to wander into moral ambiguity and end up in a…

Texas Tribune says candidate for Texas House enabled Pressler’s antics with boys and young men

The Southern Baptist Convention’s most notorious sexual predator was enabled by his former law partner, who now is running for the Texas House of Representatives and wants to become speaker of the House, according to a new report in the…

Georgia leader withdraws from consideration for SBC Executive Committee presidency

More than two years after its last president resigned, the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee is back to the drawing board in its search for a staff leader. Thomas Hammond, executive director of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, told his…

Clowns to the left, jokers to the right: Stuck in the middle with (half of) you

In January 2024, a Gallup poll indicated an average of 43% U.S. adults identified as politically independent in 2023. Meanwhile, 27% of respondents identified as Democrats or Republicans, respectively. In other words, roughly half of Americans say they aren’t loyal…

Historian shows how America became Israel’s best friend and biggest defender

Ever since Hamas terrorists killed 1,200 Israelis more than 100 days ago, Israel has relied on America, its best friend and biggest defender. If you want to understand how that came to be the case, check out On the Road…

One quarter of U.S. United Methodist churches have disaffiliated

Final statistics for churches exiting The United Methodist Church show more similarities than differences between congregations that left the denomination and those that stayed, along with sustained identity trends among 7,600 departing churches — 25% of the UMC’s 30,000 churches…

More thoughts on Mary breastfeeding, hierarchy and ‘kin-dom’ versus ‘kingdom’

Peel back the layers of our modern-day debate over the role of women in the church and you’ll find the underlying stumbling block has to do with hierarchy and bodies. BNG ran an Advent series written by Julia Goldie Day…

Theologizing with Larkin Poe, 10 years after Reskinned

Ministry leader with tall tales wins GOP bid for Colorado governor

What Willy Rice once knew

What I learned July 5 at church