Several years ago, in my previous life as a pastor, a well-meaning member of our Missions Committee looked at the church’s missions budget, noted the large sum of money we were sending to state and national denominational groups and declared…
Details released on CBF’s budget reductions and restructuring
More details released Oct. 13 about the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s 10% reduction in budgeted expenditures for the new fiscal year indicate a loss of 10 staff positions at the Decatur, Ga., offices and additional savings from normal attrition of missions…
In Lesbos refugee camp, first came the fire, then came the Neo-Nazis
You may have read in the news about the terrible fire that destroyed Camp Moria, the extremely overcrowded refugee camp on Lesbos. I was on the island during this fire. The night of the fire was incredibly windy. I could…
Encourager Church program thriving despite pandemic
Trinity Baptist Church in Seneca, S.C., hasn’t let a pandemic get in the way of deepening its commitment to missions. The congregation is leaning into its Encourager Church relationship with Cooperative Baptist Fellowship field personnel Scarlette Jasper in Kentucky and…
Q&A with Christen Green Kinard on pandemic church communications
Christen Green Kinard says she has no formal religious education, but as the child of career missionaries, she knows the right things to educate churches about their online ministry during the pandemic. Kinard is a communications professional and daughter of…
Touching Miami with Love hires locally for leader
It was a job interview that no one involved knew was a job interview and yet resulted in decisions that continue to transform Touching Miami with Love, a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship ministry that serves impoverished youth and families in South…
What I fear as a white woman married to a Black man
Conversations on race and racial justice in the United States have become so polarized that too often these discussions result in people talking at one another, and an invisible distance is created between “the issue” and the humans affected. Today,…
Refugee ministries adapt amid COVID and government slowdown
The ministry of welcoming immigrants and refugees has not ground to a halt during the coronavirus pandemic, but it has changed shape. “Our work hasn’t slowed down at all, even though the government is working to slow down new refugee…
Q&A with Elket Rodriguez about COVID-19 and border ministry
What a time for attorney Elket Rodríguez to start a new job advocating for immigrants along the U.S.-Mexico border on behalf of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Fellowship Southwest. That was on March 2 — just days before the coronavirus…