Baptist News Global

Southern Baptists, attorney-client privilege, and devotion to empire

Unlike many who read Baptist News Global, I hold no nostalgic memories and feelings for the Southern Baptist Convention. I regard the SBC as an institution conceived, birthed and used to associate the gospel of Jesus with white supremacy from…

As the American population grows older, church ministries need to shift

There’s one important reason for the graying of America’s churches that often gets overlooked in the rush to “attract more young people.” That reason is simple and obvious to anyone who reads demographics: America as a nation is graying. In…

Why there’s a challenging future ahead for Baptist seminaries and future faculty

In the next five to 10 years, moderate and progressive-leaning Baptist institutions of theological higher education are going to have to make some difficult decisions. Theological education generally has been struggling for quite some time. The high watermark of church…

Seven things white Christians can do to address white supremacy at church

Since my book White Too Long came out in the summer of 2020, amid nationwide Black Lives Matter protests following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, I’ve had the privilege of speaking with dozens of predominantly white congregations and denominational…

SBC says church planters must pledge not to hire women as pastors just like they pledge not to drink alcohol

Faced with pressure from its rightward flank, the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board issued a statement Oct. 14 promising that “only qualified men” will “serve as the communicator for teaching and preaching” at church plants endorsed by NAMB….

Largest-ever U.S. congregational survey confirms what church consultants have been telling you

For anyone who hasn’t gotten the message yet: American congregations are changing rapidly, and the old ways aren’t working. The kind of rapid adaptation seen in response to the coronavirus pandemic illustrates the kind of new thinking that will be…

Hartford Seminary is now a university with an interreligious peacemaking focus

One of the nation’s oldest seminaries has changed its name and removed the word “seminary” in the process. Hartford Seminary, established in 1833 by a group of Congregational ministers to train ministerial leadership for churches, now is known as Hartford…

This Bucket Challenge offers DIY cleanup relief for disaster victims

The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has turned to the bucket to counter the pandemic limits placed on disaster response ministry, said Daynette Snead-Perez, CBF’s U.S. disaster response manager. A “1,000 Bucket Challenge” seeks individuals and churches to fill 1,000 5-gallon buckets…

Let’s stop the average Sunday attendance freak out

Remember “average Sunday attendance”? If you are the lucky one in your church who completes forms to send to your denomination, you recognize this metric. During the modern era (up to around the year 2000), this metric was a fairly…

Faced with a health scare and a pandemic, Max Lucado is thinking about how to maximize the moment

It has been 36 years since Max Lucado debuted his first book, and even he is amazed how far he’s come since 1985. Just a few years prior to that, he was an associate pastor tasked with writing the church’s…

The Delta variant is raging in Eastern Kentucky because of historic injustices

A teacher at a local high school who hadn’t turned 30. A minister who helped baptize my Pap. And just last week my Pap’s brother-in-law Bill, who had the friendliest smile you’d ever seen. Each of them, and many more…

Ronnie Floyd resigns SBC Executive Committee leadership with two weeks’ notice

After 28 months on the job, the embattled president of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee announced his resignation Oct. 14 saying he cannot abide by the recent decision to waive attorney-client privilege for a sexual abuse investigation. Ronnie Floyd,…

Eradicating DEI hasn’t made anything better

How Christian nationalism shows up in patriotic worship services

Dear Trump-supporting Christians, are you really OK with this?

‘Every Student. Every State’ campaign promotes school tax credit