The annual pastors conference of the Baptist General Association of Virginia met on Nov. 10 at North Roanoke Baptist Church in Roanoke, the day prior to the BGAV annual meeting. Pastors conference president Mark Croston presided and introduced speakers, who…
Ga. Baptists reject church with woman pastor
JONESBORO, Ga. (ABP) — The Georgia Baptist Convention has decided to refuse gifts from a historic member church that last year called a woman as pastor. Messengers to the Nov. 9-11 annual meeting approved a policy change authorizing convention leaders…
SBCV welcomes new executive director
ROANOKE (BP) — The 12th annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia Nov. 10-11 drew 950 messengers and 250 guests to First Baptist Church in Roanoke, where messengers adopted a $9.5 million budget, welcomed 25 new churches, celebrated…
Md./Del. cuts budget amid financial hardships
DOVER, Del. (BP) — Messengers to the Nov. 10-11 annual meeting of the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware approved an overall budget of $6.2 million for the coming year, down from $7.1 million in 2008. Anticipated Cooperative Program giving from churches…
EDITORIAL: Being a contented pastor’s wife
Dear Jimmy, I'm writing to tell you about a conversation I had this afternoon when we were over at Dolly Mayhew's that I think might make a good article for the Religious Herald. Her daughter Kelly and her new husband…
N.C. Baptists nix plan to forward CBF gifts
GREENSBORO, N.C. (ABP) — North Carolina Baptist churches soon won't be able to support the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship through the state convention, messengers decided at their annual meeting Nov. 12. The Baptist State Convention of North Carolina voted to kill…
Gentle warrior
Earl Scott claimed that he was “no hero.” As proof, he cited that he won no medals. But he did have war stories. He liked to tell about his “window on the Battle of the Bulge.” It was a pilot's…
FCC approves ‘white space’ technology; some churches worry about interference
WASHINGTON (RNS) — The Federal Communications Commis-sion has decided to grant Google, Motorola, Dell and Microsoft permission to develop “white space” devices that some pastors worry will interfere with wireless microphones. The “white space” devices would use the same radio…
Atheists want probe of religion in military
WASHINGTON (RNS) — A na-tional atheist lobbying group is calling on President-elect Barack Obama to overhaul military policies in an effort to reduce what it sees as religious discrimination in the armed forces. The Secular Coalition for America has written…
Three decades later, memories of Jonestown tragedy linger
WASHINGTON (RNS) — In life, the 900 people who followed Jim Jones to build a utopian commune in the South American jungle in 1977 were relatively anonymous. But in death, the Jonestown pilgrims became front-page news when they died a…
Archaeologists find fragments linked to High Priest
JERUSALEM (RNS) — Israeli archaeologists have discovered a fragment from an ancient sarcophagus cover that bears a carved inscription with the words “The Son of the High Priest” in Hebrew. The High Priest was ancient Judaism's highest religious official and…
Faith Digest
Atheists to launch bus ads. Beginning Nov. 18, holiday ads from the American Humanist Association will appear on Washington, D.C., buses, declaring: “Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness' sake.” The $40,000 ad campaign is not necessarily…