TAMPA, Fla. (ABP) — The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship commissioned 14 self-funded individuals — including a couple from Virginia — to missions work June 23 at the General Assembly in Tampa, Fla. More than 1,600 Fellowship Baptists were in attendance on…
Dunn uplifts ‘soul freedom’ at Baptist Joint Committee annual event
TAMPA, Fla. (ABP) — Accepting this year’s J.M. Dawson Religious Liberty Award from the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty June 24, former BJC leader James Dunn identified “soul freedom” as the driving force behind the church-state watchdog organization now…
Cooperative Baptist Fellowship marks anniversary with laughter, hope
TAMPA, Fla.– The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship looked back in laughter and forward in hope at a celebration banquet marking its 20th anniversary June 22. So-called moderates who lost a bitter 12-year battle for control of the Southern Baptist Convention founded…
Women ministers gaining ground in Baptist life, report indicates
TAMPA, Fla. (ABP) — Women are making slow but steady progress into ministry positions in Baptist churches, according to a report released June 22 by Baptist Women in Ministry. The fourth State of Women in Baptist Life report by the…
Anniversary speaker labels CBF a ‘movement of the Spirit’
TAMPA, Fla. (ABP) — Two decades after forming as a “new spiritual home place” for disenfranchised Southern Baptists, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship now is “called as a movement of the Spirit,” the keynote speaker at a 20th anniversary celebration banquet…
Reduced financial contributions still a problem, CBF council members told
TAMPA, Fla. — Sagging financial contributions remain a challenge for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, members of the group’s Coordinating Council were told June 22. Current receipts are running at about 82 percent of the $14.5 million budget for 2010-2011, said…
VITAL SIGNS: What will we do with failure?
Failure. Just saying the word in the same sentence as our name makes us nervous. Far too often, failure and ministry go together. Frequently, failure is the last word for ministers and churches. Many ministers’ inner life is marked by…
HeraldBeat
TRANSITIONS ON THE MOVE Kevin Wirt, to Pleasant Hill Baptist Church, Troutville, Va., as pastor. Chuck Marshburn, to Tidewater Korean Church, Virginia Beach, Va., as English-speaking pastor. Robert Carpenter, resigning as pastor of Talbot Park Baptist Church, Norfolk. Don Harvey,…
EDITORIAL: Positive signs in SBC leadership?
If you didn’t realize the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting was being held last week in Phoenix, you were not alone. For the first time since 1944, fewer than 5,000 messengers registered for the two-day conference. Only 4,780 had registered…