Which do you live by: Clock or compass? If the clock dictates, your life is consumed with the immediate and pressing issues of the moment. Clock-life is focused on short-term results. If the clock rules, you find yourself racing from…
EDITORIAL: Pewboy makes progress
Pewboy’s perpetually glad countenance, characterized by a wide and happy smile, had given way to a more somber and pensive visage. With brow furrowed and chin resting on clasped hands he gave the appearance of a chess player methodically searching…
HERITAGE: New beginnings
Lacy Milton Ritter was painfully young in June 1906 when he began his pastorate of Blackstone Baptist Church in Southside Virginia. The young bachelor came with limited pastoral experience; and within a week of the new beginnings between pastor and…
Long-time Virginia Baptist leader funds ministry preparation
BLUEFIELD, Va. — Students studying for a career in Christian ministry now have access to even more financial aid to help fulfill their calling, thanks to a scholarship established at Bluefield College by alumnus Danny Agee and his wife, Carolyn….
Chowan University’s SeniorFest 2011 to feature cartoonist
MURFREESBORO, N.C. — Marcus Hamilton, award-winning cartoonist of Dennis the Menace, and Christian humorist pastor Roger Hensley, will be featured guests at this year’s SeniorFest on Thursday, March 31, at Chowan University in Murfreesboro, N.C. The event will include lunch,…
From the Eastern Shore to Cumberland Gap
STAFF CHANGES • John Boyles, to Colonial Avenue Church, Roanoke, as pastor. • Bill Wheeler, to First Church, Lynchburg, as worship pastor. • Ed Haynes, to New Hope Church, Mine Run, as pastor. • Randy Mathis, concluding his ministry as…
OPINION: Not on our watch
We all know that the church in North America is struggling. Every day we read about denominational staff cut backs and budget woes. Religious schools and institutions are suffering. And yet we in the church believe God is not through with…
BTSR considering merger with North Carolina’s Chowan University
MURFREESBORO, N.C. (ABP) — Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond is considering a merger with Chowan University, a 162-year-old North Carolina Baptist school 99 miles south of the seminary’s Richmond, Va., campus, in hopes of solving lingering financial problems made worse…
What’s the skinny on Lent?
An odd word, Lent. Most European languages refer to the 40-day preparation period prior to Easter with some form of the words “forty” or “fast.” English-speakers, on the other hand, adapted a Teutonic or Anglo-Saxon (no one knows quite sure…
Spiritual preparation for Easter not just a ‘Catholic thing,’ say observers
Easter Sunday — the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ — is for Christians the culmination of their community life, expressing the heart of their faith. But among Baptists and other evangelicals, an intentional period of preparation for their…
Writer explores array of ancient spiritual practices for believers today
So you want to spend the weeks prior to Easter exploring spiritual disciplines but aren’t sure where to start? In his book The Sacred Way, writer and theologian Tony Jones offers an easily accessible approach to spiritual practices developed by…
Vestal predicts further downsizing at CBF
DECATUR, Ga. (ABP) — The head of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship predicted future budget cuts that for the first time would affect global-missions personnel for the 20-year-old movement spun off from the Southern Baptist Convention. The CBF Coordinating Council normally…