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…
Ethnic labels a hindrance to unity in Christ
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…
OUT LOUD
“Christianity is a faith and not a musical genre.” Chad Butler The drummer in the band Switchfoot was discussing with the Dallas Observer the group's reluctance to describe themselves as a “Christian band.” “An alternate name and the election of…
VITAL SIGNS: Our hidden addiction
You know all too well that our society is prone to addictions. We do nearly everything to excess. Not just the obvious culprits: alcohol, gambling, pain-killers, sex, work. There are a multitude of things which, done in moderation, are life-giving…
LEADERSHIP LINK: Understand, don’t underestimate, investments
The term “investments” can be a scary thing for churches. With the crash and continued volatility of the stock market still fresh on your budget’s bottom line, investing may seem impossible or imprudent. And let’s be honest—if there is no…
LEADERSHIP LINK: Ministers, growing spiritually and relying on God
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? How do ministers (of all kinds) learn to seek their strength primarily from…
HeraldBeat
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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…