By Bill Wilson One thing that is predictable about pastor search committees is that they all want something similar: a great preacher, an amazing administrator who loves visiting, someone who is effective with young families and senior adults, a 38…
CBF leader says it’s time to revisit ban on hiring gays
Lent for Baptists
By Jim Denison If you’re like me, you grew up in a Baptist church where Lent was a foreign word. Like all things Catholic, it was ignored if not rejected. In recent years, I have come to see the error…
Why Baptists need Martha Stearns Marshall Month
By Kate Hanch Martha Stearns Marshall Month, sponsored by Baptist Women in Ministry each February, celebrates the voices of women in the pulpit. Martha Stearns Marshall lived during the 18th century. Along with her husband, she provided leadership and preaching…
Task force proposes new CBF funding plan
By Bob Allen A task force studying the future of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is recommending a new funding plan that moves decisions about how money is spent closer to the local church. Wrapping up a two-year process that included…
BTSR near $1 million campaign goal
By Robert Dilday Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond is only $100,000 shy of reaching its $1 million matching gifts goal, seminary administrators announced Feb. 14, adding they expected the campaign to be successfully concluded. BTSR president Ron Crawford (left) and…
Kentucky church leaves association
By Bob Allen A Baptist church in Kentucky has severed ties with its local association of churches, saying doctrinal uniformity has trumped cooperative missions in the Southern Baptist Convention. : “All are welcomed here,” proclaims the Central Baptist Church website….
Racial reconciliation 2012
By David Gushee On Tuesday, McAfee School of Theology hosted a sizable contingent of African-American leaders on our Atlanta campus. Gerald Durley, senior pastor at Providence Missionary Baptist Church in southwest Atlanta, preached in chapel. The sermon began with his…
Editor warns of encroaching Calvinism
By Bob Allen A recent Baptist state newspaper editorial warned of a “presumable encroachment” of five-point Calvinism in the Southern Baptist Convention. Christian Index Editor Gerald Harris penned the editorial titled “The Calvinists are here” Feb. 9. Harris noted that…
Campus minister Melissa Cheliras dies following battle with cancer
By Robert Dilday Melissa Cheliras, Baptist campus minister at the University of Richmond, died Feb. 10, following a four-month battle with esophageal cancer. She was 33. Melissa Cheliras Cheliras had been part-time collegiate minister at UR since last summer. She…
Retiring CBF head to lead new center for Baptist leadership
By Bob Allen Retiring Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Executive Coordinator Daniel Vestal has been tapped to lead Mercer University’s new Eula Mae and John Baugh Center for Baptist Leadership. Vestal, 67, will assume his new role July 1, the day after…
Seminary trustees to confront president over audit, management issues
By Greg Warner Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s board of trustees will meet Feb. 10 in a special session to discuss the leadership of President Phil Roberts, Associated Baptist Press has learned. Trustee sources said the board’s executive leadership will recommend…