TAP-IN (which stands for Third Age Professional Initiative) is an innovative new program which connects senior physicians with free clinic volunteer opportunities. It is now available for all Virginia physicians ages 55 and over through a partnership with the Virginia…
With a smile!
When the deacons—all four or five of them—hold a meeting this year at Cut Banks Church in Dinwiddie County, there will be someone missing. It is the first year since 1933 that Oliver McGill “Gillie” Wells has not served as…
‘Mainstream’ leaders credit freedom for staying Baptist
A refrain of freedom echoed through a Mainstream Baptist Network convocation in suburban Dallas Feb. 23-24. About 80 participants from across the South gathered for the sixth-annual event. During the session, seven speakers addressed the theme “Why I am still…
FIRST PERSON: On building bridges
Editor's note: Following this article is a brief email exchange between Dr. Rainer and me. When my three grown sons were small children, we would often play with a wooden train. Because they were so young, the boys would sometimes…
EDITORIAL: Some things can’t be ignored
It is a small country church that called as pastor a man they believed was God's choice for them. The members are good, salt-of-the-earth folks. Unsophisticated by intent, perhaps even naïve in their innocence, they believed the “man of God”…
Concerned about IMB
Having gone on record last year in the Religious Herald as being “optimistic” about the potential to be both a Virginia Baptist and a Southern Baptist, I must admit that my optimism is being greatly tested by the actions of…
Hands to the plow
Members of the Virginia Baptist Mission Board's glocal missions and evangelism team staff are accustomed to sending Virginia Baptists within the state, across the United States and throughout the world as volunteers in mission service. But between Jan. 24 and…
Search committees
In light of the recent article of Chamberlayne Baptist Church's success with calling a new pastor [“Insights gleaned from a pastor search committee,” Feb. 22], I wanted to submit this letter I wrote a number of months ago to a…
World’s Baptists gather to say goodbye to Lotz
A capacity crowd of 750 Baptists gathered in the ballroom of a Washington, D.C., area hotel last week to honor the life and ministry of Denton Lotz, general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance, as he plans to retire. The…
Gays in churches
Maybe I'm missing something, but the article about the North Carolina Baptist convention [“Gay-friendly church in N.C. invites investigation,” Feb. 22] seems to lack a detail. Does Myers Park Baptist Church encourage people with abnormal orientation to hold positions of…
Saddleback’s Rick Muchow shares experiences of worship leading
For 20 years, Rick Muchow, worship leader of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., has shared the platform with Rick Warren. While others might have wilted under the intensity of this experience, Muchow has thrived. In Richmond to lead the…
Thanks for issue
The Feb. 22 edition, your editoral and the whole issue, was one of the finest. Thanks! Bob Boggs, Glen Allen