The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has announced the creation of a five-member committee charged in part with guiding the organization through renewed controversy over its longstanding policy against hiring LGBTQ people. The committee is responsible for implementing the Illumination Project, which…
Talking race is — and should be — uncomfortable, Baptist leaders say
Of all the workshops offered at last month’s CBF General Assembly, at least one of them counted on its participants checking their comfort zones at the door. The leaders of “The Elephant in the Room: Engaging in Dialogue around Race…
Celebration a key discipline like fasting and prayer, ministers say
Spiritual formation usually brings to mind practices like contemplative prayer and fasting, silence and meditation, walking the labyrinth and celebration. Wait, celebration?
No Millennials in church? They may be working, expert says
Charging Millennials with rejecting church and being undisciplined givers doesn’t take into account the multitude of economic and social factors that characterize their lives.
‘Spiritual friendship’ sustains pastor, layman through vocational challenges
Greg Rogers has had mentors, ministerial support groups and an array of denominational colleagues to draw on during his long career in ministry. But most of the strength Rogers needed to weather the challenges of pastoring a church, at least in…
Separating mission and spiritual formation is bad strategy, say ministers
If he had a magic wand, Trey Lyon says he would likely transform the way churches conceive, fund and experience mission and spiritual formation. Basically, he would combine them. “I would love to see churches with ministers of mission and spiritual…
Missional DNA enabled churches to heal communities after Pulse and Sandy Hook
Pastor Terri Steed Pierce knew even before arriving at church the morning of June 12 that worship was going to be radically different at Joy Metropolitan Community Church in Orlando. Many in her LGBTQ congregation knew victims killed or wounded…
CBF’s hiring policy: Déjà vu all over again
I came away from the 25th anniversary celebration of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in Greensboro, N.C., renewed and invigorated. But amid the hugs and hall talk between sessions, there was a lot of worried, whispered conversation about what to do about CBF’s personnel policy which does not permit hiring non-celibate gays.
Interfaith partnerships, service to those in poverty and an ATM define Louisiana church
Charlene Kelley says her faith is deeper and stronger than it has ever been thanks to her church in Shreveport, La. But it’s not just the usual things, like Bible studies and worship, that have transformed her Christian experience.