God uses different people in different ways, just as seen throughout creation, Houston pastor Ralph West told the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship June 30. “Have you noticed in a careful reading of Scripture that God doesn’t do any two things in…
Together for Hope inspires communities to see what they’ve got more than what they’re lacking
The mayor of Sidon, Miss., said courage surged through her town when it encountered Together for Hope, a national coalition that uses holistic approaches to fight poverty in the most economically ravaged American communities. Like most cities and towns in…
CBF is ‘crossing over’ to a new era, Baxley tells General Assembly
The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is “crossing over” into a new era of growth and promise, Executive Coordinator Paul Baxley told participants in CBF’s General Assembly June 30. In a report punctuated repeatedly by loud applause from the audience, Baxley said…
While the SBC shuns women as preachers, CBF celebrates a new generation of women as preachers
Testimony is the cure for the despair that afflicts people and churches after two years of pandemic and politics have tried American religion by fire, Courtney Stamey told participants in the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship June 29. While the Southern Baptist…
Daniel Vestal writes of the changing chapters of life and faith
The Daniel Vestal attending this week’s Cooperative Baptist Fellowship gathering in Dallas is in some ways a very different Christian than he was the first — or even most recent — time he attended a general assembly. That’s because the…
Who’ll bring the sackcloth and ashes to CBF General Assembly this week?
“Think they’ll have everyone wear sackcloth and ashes at CBF General Assembly this year?” I texted those words to a fellow Baptist clergywoman after reading the State of Women in Baptist Life report. I wasn’t kidding either. I desperately want…
Annual report on Baptist women in ministry finds some gains but serious losses due to COVID
Women in ministry continue to feel blocked in their callings and ignored in their ministry settings because they are female, according to an annual report released June 21 by Baptist Women in Ministry. “The State of Women in Baptist Life,”…
Brian Foreman named CBF’s coordinator of congregational ministries
North Carolina educator Brian Foreman has been named coordinator of congregational ministries for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. He was chosen for the newly created position by an eight-member search committee, then affirmed in the role by the CBF Governing Board….
How I came to oppose the death penalty
Do you have a book you can say changed your life? I do. I was a freshman in college when I read Dead Man Walking by Sister Helen Prejean. It had a profound impact on what I thought and believed…