Ethnic labels and segregation at the Lord’s Supper table thwart Christian unity, a Baptist international leader told participants at a Christian ethics lecture series in the United States. Neville Callam, general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance, delivered the 12th…
SBC leader issues apologies for comments
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP)—After initially defending comments accusing black leaders of politicizing the death of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, the head of Southern Baptists’ Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission issued back-to-back apologies regarding statements he made on his radio program. Richard…
Veteran minister reflects on black church life
BELTON, Texas—After more than five decades of ministry, George Harrison understands what African-American Christians have gained and lost in the last half-century. Harrison, pastor emeritus of First Baptist Church-NBC in Waco, Texas, and a veteran church musician, vividly remembers life…
Racial tensions simmer beneath surface in America
A neighborhood watchman in Florida shoots and kills a hoodie-wearing African-American teenager. Two white suspects in Tulsa, Okla., confess to the Easter weekend shooting of five people in a predominantly black neighborhood. Periodically, racial tensions that have simmered beneath the…
Conservatives go after ‘NASCAR Christian’ vote
RICHMOND, Va. (RNS)—Back in John Kerry’s ill-fated 2004 presidential campaign, Democrats tried to attract so-called “NASCAR Dads”—white, working-class, mainly Southern fellows—to try to blunt George W. Bush’s re-election and show folks that Kerry was not a wealthy patrician who only…
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LEADERSHIP LINK: Resources for spiritual formation
How do people in ministry remember that they, too, are children of God when there are so many pressures to respond first to the needs of others? Here are resources for spiritual formation in the Mid-Atlantic region. To read related…
HERITAGE: Shapers of Baptist thought
In about 1870 two old men were making conversation and one asked the other who among Baptists might be remembered a hundred years later. Each man named the other. Fifty years earlier, as young men, they had been energetic preacher-boys…
LEADERSHIP LINK: Four things followers want from their leaders
Lawrence had been struggling for days. He just wanted some insight into how the leadership team could have come to him. Yes, he had been a faithful member of the church for years, but any thought of joining the ranks…
EDITORIAL: The birds and the bees have escaped
As anyone who has read the Bible, or for that matter, Homer, knows, interest in and concern over sexuality has been around for a long time. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that a [Baptist] Conference on Sexuality and…
TRENDING: Three changing skill sets for preachers
What is trending from the pulpit? Here are three current indications that might inform your preaching. 1. Charismatic leadership wanes; transformational leadership waxes. John Chandler By “charismatic,” I don’t mean Pentecostal theology, but charisma-fueled ability to captivate large groups. In a…
WMU of NC to leave Raleigh, relocate in Lillington
RIDGECREST, N.C.—Woman’s Missionary Union of North Carolina will move its headquarters from Raleigh to an office building in Lillington recently donated to the mission organization. The relocation to Lillington—about 40 miles south of Raleigh—will save WMUNC about $70,000, said acting…