RICHMOND — Sandy Weakley, administrative assistant for the Dover Baptist Association, has been elected to a two-year term as secretary-treasurer of the National Association of Southern Baptist Secretaries (NASBS). Weakley She has also been active in the Baptist Ministry Assistants…
EDITORIAL: Aunt Ida needs more study
Dear Jimmy, Well, it’s one of those nights when I can’t sleep so I figure I’ll write you a few lines maybe sort out some things that are all jumbled up in my mind. Your uncle and I have had…
Before building, congregations should ‘get it right,’ says Baptist consultant
Because buildings are so costly and so permanent, churches better take time to get it right before they rush into construction, says Rod Hale, church facilities consultant for the Virginia Baptist Mission Board. Get organized. Churches contemplating building new space…
Baptist women clearly left their mark in colonial America
“Some of the early Baptist church records did not even list the names of women members, and early histories of the Baptist faith in America gave little attention to the role and contributions of women,” she said. “Because of this…
Fork Union inducts athletes into school’s Sports Hall of Fame
FORK UNION — Vinny Testaverde has traveled far and wide throughout his long NFL career, and has earned many honors and accolades, but this week he returned to Fork Union, where his dream of earning a scholarship to play college…
Southern progressivism left its mark on WMU
Southern-style Social Gospel may not be the first thing that springs to mind when most Baptists think of Woman’s Missionary Union, but Southern progressivism significantly influenced the organization in its formative years, church historian Carol Holcomb noted. Holcomb, associate professor…
Baptists’ grass-roots identity helped spread key ideas
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (ABP) — While Baptists may not be able to claim sole credit as the originators of ideas such as religious liberty and the modern missionary movement, the denomination’s identification with common folk helped them become “popularizers” of these…
Historic Baptist ordination practices reveal a tangled web
Pragmatism and tradition have stood alongside biblical and theological principles in shaping Baptist ordination practices, church historian Karen Bullock told the B.H. Carroll Theological Institute colloquy. “The concept of ordination as practiced by Baptists today is a complex — even…
Book says SBC lacks system of preventing sexual abuse
AUSTIN, Texas (ABP) — A book released in advance of the June 23-24 annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention claims the nation's largest Protestant faith group has more than 100,000 clergy, but no effective system of denominational oversight to…