Baptist News Global

Transitions for the week of 4-5-19

Please submit transitions — including staff changes, ordinations, anniversaries or deaths — to Barbara Francis. This page will be updated weekly. STAFF CHANGES Dennis Barton, to Oakland Baptist Church, Gum Spring, Va., as interim pastor, effective April 28. David Breckenridge,…

James E. Wood, Baylor scholar and BJC leader, dead at 96

James E. Wood Jr., a Baptist statesman and scholar recognized as one of the world’s leading authorities on the subject of church-state relations and religious liberty, died peacefully March 4 at age 96. Born in Portsmouth, Virginia, Wood began his…

Midway through Lent, I am pondering my ‘negligences’ as I seek to watch with Jesus

The Rule of St. Benedict urges us during the season of Lent “to wash away . . .the negligences of other times.” I have been pondering the areas I neglect as routinized behavior scurries past attentiveness and contemplation.

Baptists applying some ‘very Catholic’ approaches to racial reconciliation

A small group of Baptist ministers is exploring ways to apply historically Catholic spiritual formation disciplines to the work of racial reconciliation. The exploration is based on the belief that those ancient practices, such as meditation and contemplative prayer, can…

Proposed Texas bill would shield churches that report sexual abuse from lawsuits

Nearly two months after newspapers reported hundreds of allegations of sexual misconduct by ministers and volunteers in churches aligned with the Southern Baptist Convention, a Texas lawmaker is sponsoring legislation to make it harder for sexual predators to move from church to church without detection.

As the mother of a child with autism, I see how preaching and practicing the Gospel are fractured

World Autism Awareness Day is a good day for Christians to covenant together to learn about autism, to invite the child on the outskirts to the birthday party, to notice the one who sits alone and make room on our pew for them.

Religion Notes: Pastors oppose sports gambling; Gardner-Webb featured in March Madness broadcast

Most Protestant pastors oppose sports gambling and its legalization, a position placing them at odds with much of society and even with their own congregations. “The large majority of pastors oppose sports betting,” Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay Research,…

Storytelling helps pastor deal with suffering witnessed at U.S.-Mexico border

The pain and suffering Jennifer Wilder witnessed at the U.S.-Mexico border earlier this year shook her to the core. Wilder, the pastor of Broadview Baptist Church in Sunderland, Maryland, spent parts of January and February as a volunteer providing pastoral…

Religious refusal bill advances in Texas senate

A Southern Baptist lawmaker’s bill to allow professionals licensed by the state of Texas to deny services based on their religious beliefs has passed a committee vote and is headed toward the full state senate.

The Joseph story offers a model: on climate change, the ‘what-to-do’ matters more than the ‘why’

Christians, Jews and Muslims alike regard Joseph as a hero for taking seriously the vision and making a plan of action. Why can’t we see today’s climate scientists as the same kind of God-ordained forecasters?

Transitions for the week of 3-29-19

Please submit transitions — including staff changes, ordinations, anniversaries or deaths — to Barbara Francis. This page will be updated weekly. STAFF CHANGES Denise Aanenson, to First Baptist Church, Mountlake, Wash., as pastor for the interim. Thomas Allen, to Angier…

Trump’s war on ‘woke’ targets federal grants and foreign relations

Reflections on In the Twilight of the Christian West

Why rural families need support now

Why do we keep sounding the alarm?