By Jeff Brumley Cliff Temple Baptist Church was responding to the needs of the Dallas neighborhoods around it long before the term “missional” came into vogue, and before Brent McDougal took the helm as senior pastor. But since McDougal’s arrival five…
Choctaws in rural Mississippi find ‘open arms’ in church
By Jennifer Ferry A Cooperative Baptist church is leveraging trust and service as a way to carry the gospel message to a close-knit and highly impoverished Native American community in Mississippi. In the rural town of Decatur, located in one…
Kentucky Baptists dismiss gay-friendly church
By Bob Allen The Kentucky Baptist Convention voted Nov. 11 to sever ties with a historic Louisville church which describes itself as welcoming and affirming of homosexuality. Messengers at the 2014 KBC annual meeting in Bowling Green voted overwhelmingly in…
The secret to congregational vitality revealed
The secret is really not a secret. It is well known by many congregational leaders. But, they do not accept it because they are looking for a magic act that brings quick vitality without deep commitment and persistent action. Too…
Female minister cited by association for dismissing S.C. church
By Jeff Brumley A South Carolina church affiliated with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has been booted from its Southern Baptist association over women in leadership roles. The Independent-Mail in Anderson, S.C., reported that First Baptist Church of Pendleton has been…
With humor and hard work, church changes its ‘culture of giving’
By Jeff Brumley Two years ago, Second Baptist Church in Liberty, Mo. gambled that two cartoon cows would help foster a culture of generosity and transform stewardship in the congregration. It might sound crazy, but it worked, resulting in a…
Church attracts Millennials, in part, by hiring them
By Jeff Brumley When the blog site MillennialEvangelical published “5 Reasons Why There Are No Millennials in Your Church,” Bob Ballance couldn’t resist sharing it with his friends on Facebook. Not because there are no Millennials in the American Baptist…
First Baptist, Nashville votes to sell downtown lot
By Bob Allen The congregation of First Baptist Church in Nashville, Tenn., voted Oct. 26 to sell 1.26 acres of its downtown property for $18 million to a buyer planning to build a Hyatt Regency hotel. A fixture of downtown…
Does anybody really know what tithing is? Does anybody really care?
Has a more general, difficult to measure, New Testament-oriented concept called generosity snuffed out the clear, easy to measure, Old Testament concept of tithing? Let me try that again. Has a left-brained legalism about tithing interpreted as 10 percent of…