Virginia Baptist leader John Upton was among other leaders of Baptist conventions and organizations comprising more than 20 million adherents in North America who explored “additional opportunities for fellowship and cooperation” in Atlanta April 10. President Jimmy Carter, a lifelong…
IMB missionaries refuse to resign, will face forced termination in May
After receiving an April 15 ultimatum to resign or face termination, Wyman and Michelle Dobbs have refused to resign as International Mission Board missionaries in Guinea, West Africa. The couple was targeted for starting a church in Guinea that isn't…
As collaboration takes root worldwide, focus on exclusion isolates SBC missions
At a time when collaboration and cooperation characterize Christian missions, the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board appears to be moving toward isolation and exclusion, some veteran missionaries and missiologists insist. They point to new IMB policies — prohibiting private…
Varied religious groups unite to support immigration reform
The debate over immigration reform currently dividing America at large — and congressional Republicans in particular — ironically is uniting a wide spectrum of the religious community that views immigration reform as a moral issue. The Roman Catholic Church, mainline…
IMB won’t remove trustee, but prohibits future dissent
Trustees of the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board decided not to seek the removal of one of their own for criticizing trustee actions, but they adopted new guidelines to prohibit and punish such criticism in the future. After a…
NAMB trustees impose controls on Reccord after study
Trustees of the Southern Baptist Convention's North American Mission Board met in an eight-hour closed session March 23, emerging with recommendations that impose “executive-level controls” on NAMB President Bob Reccord and other administrators at the agency. Reccord was not fired,…
Gay activists target Liberty, Regent
Styling themselves after the famous Freedom Riders of the civil-rights era, a group of gay-rights activists is targeting Baptist and other Christian colleges with a cross-country bus trip that is part teach-in, part protest. The “Equality Ride,” organized by the…
Hammond elected president by NAMB’s trustees
In a unanimous vote March 21, trustees of the North American Mission Board elected Geoff Hammond as president of the Southern Baptist Convention's stateside mission body. Hammond, 49, will start full-time work for the entity May 22. Hammond is currently…