Transitions ON THE MOVE Steve Lalk, to Sandy Creek Baptist Church, Jetersville, Va., as pastor. Earl Jones, to Morningside Baptist Church, Asheville, N.C., as pastor. Joe Edwards, to Gourdvine Baptist Church, Rixleyville, Va., as pastor. Greg Robertson, to Calvary Baptist…
LEADERSHIP LINK: Churches adapt to make most of mid-week service
(ABP)—The look and feel of the Wednesday night church service is beginning to change as congregations seek to become more intentional and relevant to the communities they serve, ministers and scholars say. Those experts say they’re noticing the shift as…
CELEBRATE RETIREMENT: 10,000 Baby Boomers reaching age 65 every day
It happens to everyone. You can’t do anything about it and you want to think you’ll be calm when it happens, but most times it will catch you off guard. It’s your first “senior” mailing. It could be an invitation…
Anglicans celebrate Book of Common Prayer’s 350th
CANTERBURY, England (RNS/ENInews) “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” “All the deceits of the world, the flesh and the devil.” “Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest.” Shakespeare? The King James Bible? Close—the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, the liturgical and…
More churches turning to high-tech worship
(RNS) No matter where you live, you can go to church, so to speak, with Christ Fellowship in McKinney, Texas, which is on board with almost every high-tech gambit under heaven. Find the church by going online—the 21st-century version of…
Mormons and Baptists compete for converts
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (RNS)—Jake Pulsipher’s first day as a working missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began at 6:30 a.m. with prayer and exercise, followed by breakfast and study. Then he put on a black suit, white…
Is a contemporary worship service the quick-fix to energize a church?
It’s a recurring scenario in America’s Christian congregations. As members grapple with their church’s future—eager to increase attendance or renew spiritual energy—one suggestion inevitably emerges. It’s time to start a contemporary worship service. The assumption that guitar- and drum-driven worship…
Survey finds record 19 percent of religiously unaffiliated Americans
(RNS)—Unbelief is on the uptick. People who check “None” for their religious affiliation are now nearly one in five Americans (19 percent), the highest ever documented, according to the Pew Center for the People and the Press. The rapid rise…
EDITORIAL: Freeh indeed! Penn State’s sex scandal and implications for the church
The release of the Freeh report the morning of July 12, has focused attention once again to the Penn State/Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal. According to the 267-page report authored by former FBI director Louis Freeh, who was hired by…
OPINION: Waiting for the bullets
What went through her mind during the final minutes of her life? What feelings of terror flooded her heart as she crouched on the rock-strewn barren ravine bank just outside her native village of Charikar in Afghanistan? Powerless to prevent…
Bible museum planned for Washington, D.C.
WASHINGTON (RNS)—A large-scale Bible museum will open in Washington, D.C., within four years, say planners who have been touring the world with portions of their collection. Cary Summers, chief operating officer of The Museum of the Bible, a nonprofit umbrella…
LETTER: Praise for a mentor
I attended the annual meeting of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society on the evening of May 22. Nine days later Julian Pentecost died. The timing was somewhat providential for me because I was thinking about Dr. Pentecost on that May…