Baptist News Global

My quest to find the word ‘homosexual’ in the Bible

I was born and raised in a Southern Baptist church by two incredibly amazing parents who dearly love the Lord. It was a great experience. I remember Sunday school and Training Union, contributing to Lottie Moon and Annie Armstrong for…

Adult faith formation thriving although different due to COVID

The coronavirus outbreak is inspiring Christians to take spiritual formation into their own hands — and that’s just fine with a lot of spiritual formation pastors. “People have pushed pause,” said Jayne Davis, associate pastor for discipleship at First Baptist…

Five ideas for pandemic praying

A young professional in my church recently reached out to me with some prayer concerns. As we talked on the phone, he searched for words. It turns out he was struggling with more than his prayer life; he was struggling…

Why we gather for in-person worship

We now have gathered for in-person worship for six Sundays after 15 weeks of online-only services. We recognize there are risks involved; we’re doing the best we can to mitigate those risks through the wearing of masks, practicing physical distancing…

Congregations on mission and online doing better financially amid COVID

Six months into the COVID-19 pandemic, the financial news from America’s religious congregations is not as dire as first predicted. Still, while some churches survive and even thrive, others struggle. “In March we were readying up to help churches think…

In the United States, is it possible to be an honest and just person?

Any society, regardless of its character, teaches and encourages people to be honest and just. In Christianity, however, honesty and justice must be consciously practiced and cultivated; they are, at least theoretically, fundamental principles that should characterize those who have…

New book explores pain of preaching after a suicide in the congregation

In January 2009, I sat down at my desk to think about the upcoming season of Lent. I was the pastor at Wilton Baptist Church in Wilton, Conn. I had been there for just over two years but was the…

‘We are Cain’: Owning up to the reality of racism in America

Inside both the National Memorial for Peace and Justice visitor center and the Legacy Museum in downtown Montgomery, there is an installation composed of rows and rows of glass jars on wooden racks, containing soil samples from lynching sites. These…

The church is closed but the kitchen is open to serve

Coronavirus has closed church facilities across the country, but Temple Baptist Church in Raleigh, N.C., is not one of them. Since mid-March, the congregation has become the site of a five-day-a-week feeding effort that has assembled, bagged and distributed more…

America, these are self-inflicted wounds

The United States has now lost 150,000 people — almost three times the number of people we lost during the Vietnam War – due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic is spreading unchecked across the nation. Meanwhile, national, state and…

In ‘demon sperm’ theology, the problem is not the demons

Stella Immanuel — the Cameroonian-American doctor at the heart of this country’s most recent culture war skirmish over the novel coronavirus and the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment — believes certain medical conditions are the result of “evil deposits”…

Massachusetts church opens eyes despite closed building

As a minister, Brent Newberry always strives to discern congregational talents and how they can be used to bring healing and hope to a turbulent, virus-ridden world. “I am recognizing that whatever you’re good at as a church is accentuated…

The wicked are punished — or not

What Ryan Burge sees in America’s megachurches

We are a nation of immigrants

As worldwide deaths mount, Musk insists DOGE cuts didn’t kill anyone