I was most impressed with your front page article in the April 19 issue. When a pastor leaves a congregation is a perfect time for a church to “relax, rest, regroup.” I advise a congregation, after a pastor leaves it…
A cry from the depths
Darrell Cook, the BCM director at Virginia Tech, walked me through the campus on the day students returned to classes. Obviously, the students looked dazed as if living in a surreal world starving for normalcy again. You could hear the…
David Olive named president of Bluefield College
David W. Olive will be the next president of Bluefield College, the BC board of trustees announced April 21. Olive, an executive vice president and chief operating officer at Pfeiffer University in Charlotte, N.C., will become Bluefield College's ninth president…
Emerging leader explores call at Senior High Weekend
EAGLE EYRIE — Taylor Smith, a high school sophomore, feels that God may be calling her into some type of youth ministry. So in March when she joined more than 500 other youth at Eagle Eyrie for Virginia Baptists' Senior…
Mission Board approves funding for resort ministry
The Virginia Baptist Mission Board has authorized funding for a resort and leisure ministries coordinator who will serve in a variety of locations in the state. The action came during the regular spring meeting of the board held in Richmond…
Heritage Seekers releases issue in two languages
Ciao! Mi chiamo Marta ed ho 10 anni. Faccio parte della Chiesa Battista di Roma e frequento la scuola domenicale della Chiesa. Ti voglio parlare del posto dove vivo. Devi compiere un lungo viaggio se vuoi venirmi a trovare! And…
The church in parenthesis
When pastors leave congregations, their former churches often face what could be termed a punctuation crisis.Some mark the departure with a period, as the end of a sentence—either for the minister or the congregation. Others approach it with a question…
Missouri Baptist executive fired in closed-door session
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (ABP and BP) – David Clippard, embattled executive director of the Missouri Baptist Convention, was fired April 10 by the convention's Executive Board. Following a second closed-door meeting about Clippard's leadership within six months, Executive Board members…
Are some people born to be religious?
NEW ORLEANS (RNS)—A recent debate at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary was titled “The Future of Atheism,” but the heart of the dialogue explored a related question: Can mankind's age-old belief in God be explained purely as a stubbornly recurring…
Churches show lasting benefits from intentional interim ministry, study says
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.—Churches that go through the intentional interim ministry process show lasting benefits, recent research has demonstrated. The Center for Congregational Health examined churches 24 to 36 months after they completed the intentional interim process, paying particular attention to how…
Missouri associate Jim Austin tapped for top Baptist spot in South Carolina
COLUMBIA, S. C. — After spending less than two years as associate executive director of the Missouri Baptist Convention, Jim Austin is expected to become new executive director-treasurer of the South Carolina Baptist Convention. A South Carolina search committee announced…
Churches seeking pastors put plenty of hooks in the water
RICHMOND—What's in a name? For churches seeking a new minister, the bottom line is collecting names of candidates—and lots of them. That's not always an easy task, and search committees typically discover it takes a variety of approaches to create…