ALPHARETTA, Ga. (ABP) — Behind closed doors and by a reportedly divided vote, trustees of the Southern Baptist Convention's North American Mission Board elected Kentucky pastor Kevin Ezell president of the Southern Baptist Convention's North American Mission Board after a…
Alabama CBF elects Ronnie Brewer new state coordinator
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (ABP) — The Alabama Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has tapped a pastor and former campus minister as its new state coordinator. Ronnie and Janet Brewer Ronnie Brewer, senior pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Madison, Ala., was elected unanimously…
Mohler says he’s embarrassed by past support of women in ministry
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (ABP) — A seminary president who served on a committee that 10 years ago revised the Southern Baptist Convention's confessional document to declare that only men should be pastors told students Sept. 14 that he was embarrassed by…
American Baptist AIDS workers arrested in Zimbabwe
OAKLAND, Calif. (ABP) — Four American Baptist mission volunteers were released Sept. 13 on $200 worth of bond after spending three nights in jail on suspicion of dispensing AIDS medication without a license in Zimbabwe. The health workers — a…
Ezell elected NAMB president
ALPHARETTA, Ga. (ABP) — Trustees elected Kentucky pastor Kevin Ezell president of the Southern Baptist Convention's North American Mission Board after a four-hour called meeting Sept. 14. Ezell, pastor of Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., was a controversial choice,…
Interview: Kenneth Starr on Baylor’s challenges, Baptist relations
WACO, Texas (ABP) — Baylor University will inaugurate Kenneth Starr as its 14th president Sept. 17. As Starr officially takes the helm of the world's largest Baptist institution of higher learning, the school faces a host of opportunities and challenges….
Broadway Baptist Church informs BGCT it will ‘discontinue’ relationship
FORT WORTH, Texas (ABP) — A historic Fort Worth church has cut off its 125-year-old relationship with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, saying it doesn't want to be distracted by questions concerning the congregation's position on homosexuality. Broadway Baptist…
BPFNA urges support for Muslims; N.Y. project director decries discourse
NEW YORK (ABP) – As the leader of an effort to build an Islamic community center in Lower Manhattan expressed his dismay Sept. 13 at the rising tide of anti-Islam rhetoric across the country, the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North…
NAMB presidential nominee defends church’s giving record
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (ABP) — The Kentucky pastor nominated to become president of the Southern Baptist Convention's North American Mission Board says the search committee viewed his congregation's emphasis on direct funding of missions — as opposed to funding through denominational…
Baptist peace activist dies
NEW YORK (ABP) — A Baptist activist best known for his opposition to the United States' nearly 50-year-old trade embargo with Cuba died Sept. 7 after suffering a massive heart attack at age 80. Walker's August 2009 photograph with Fidel…
Baptists worldwide register protests against threatened Quran burning
ATLANTA (ABP) — While it remained unclear the afternoon of Sept. 10 whether a tiny fringe church in Gainesville, Fla., would go ahead the next day with plans to host an incendiary protest against the Islamic holy book, Baptists across…
Fear not, Jesus said — but some Christians still do
(ABP) — Perfect love, wrote the Apostle John, casts out fear. No caption submitted For Christians, that simple maxim would seem to be an easy formula for stress-free living. But 2,000 years after those words were written, many disciples of…