NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — My wife, Cary, and I travelled with a group of 25 from Virginia to South Africa during the FIFA World Cup with a mission to spread the gospel of Christ into the rural villages of South…
EDITORIAL: The Bible speaks to a crazy world
Televised news reports of the 9/11 memorial services from Ground Zero in New York last Saturday replayed those ghastly images burned forever on our national psyche. The memorial service revealed that our corporate wound hasn’t yet healed. But we knew…
Suffolk pastor will be nominated as 1st vice president of BGAV
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Mark Croston, pastor of East End Baptist Church in Suffolk, Va., will be nominated for first vice president at the annual meeting of the Baptist General Association of Virginia, it was announced Sept. 10. Don Davidson, pastor…
From the Eastern Shore to Cumberland Gap
STAFF CHANGES • Mike Reynolds, to New Hope Church, Skipwith, as pastor, effective Oct. 1. • Francisco Muniz, to Clover Bottom Church, Nathalie, as pastor. • Jeff Scott, to Northside Church, Mechanicsville, as senior pastor. • Rusty Mullins, to First…
State CBF proposal sparks debate about Baptist identity
GREENSBORO, N.C. (ABP) — A move by the North Carolina Cooperative Baptist Fellowship to revisit its foundational statement has prompted a nationwide debate among scholars about what it means to be a Baptist. Larry Hovis, coordinator of North Carolina CBF,…
Trustees elect Kentucky pastor as NAMB president on split vote
ALPHARETTA, Ga. (ABP) — Behind closed doors and by a reportedly divided vote, trustees of the Southern Baptist Convention's North American Mission Board elected Kentucky pastor Kevin Ezell president of the Southern Baptist Convention's North American Mission Board after a…
Fear not, Jesus said — but some Christians still do
Perfect love, wrote the Apostle John, casts out fear. For Christians, that simple maxim would seem to be an easy formula for stress-free living. But 2,000 years after those words were written, many disciples of Christ still find their lives…
RIGHT or WRONG? Oil-spill outrage
As crude oil began to gush into the Gulf of Mexico, everyone seemed to focus more on finger-pointing than on taking responsibility and finding solutions to the disaster. Where can a citizen lodge a legal complaint that would bring damage-control…
Faith, fear clash in middle Tennessee over proposed mosque
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (ABP) — Mike Smith, pastor of First Baptist Church in Murfreesboro, Tenn., received an anonymous letter this summer asking him to warn his congregation that a proposed new mosque near the city was part of “a long-range plan…