By Robert Dilday A longtime mission leader and advocate of urban ministry will become pastor of First Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tenn., on March 2, after almost a decade serving as pastor of First Baptist Church in Oklahoma City. Tom…
Overly churched culture congregations should change prayer focus
[Note: This is the fourth in a series of posts on the overly churched culture congregation. To see the full series go to Author Archives: George Bullard.] The first transitional action an overly churched culture church can take to bring…
Football wager drawing Baptist churches together
By Jeff Brumley While plans have yet to be made by two churches who bet a mission trip on the BCS championship game, the pastors of the two Cooperative Baptist congregations say the wager’s impact is already producing spiritual fruits….
Baptists arrested at worship in Belarus
By Bob Allen Authorities in Belarus raided a Baptist church service Dec. 22 and charged three leaders with holding an unauthorized mass public event, according to an international news service that specializes in religious liberty violations around the world. Forum…
Choose ye this day diversity
A strong, natural, cultural tendency among humankind—even those committed to loving all people—is to be in community with those considered to be “our kind of people”. The tendency is to swarm with people with whom there is the least diversity…
CBF churches scrimmage over BCS game
By Jeff Brumley Two Cooperative Baptist churches — one in Alabama, the other in Florida — are embroiled in a social media rivalry over college football that’s making headlines and inspiring mission work. It all started Tuesday when Bill Shiell, the senior pastor at…
5 things associate pastors need to survive
The work of an associate pastor often does not receive the high praise or support compared to their senior pastor. Associate pastors have the challenging task of supporting the mission and vision of the church under the leadership of their…
The non-churched people the overly churched culture doesn’t know
[Note: This is the third in a series of posts on the overly churched culture congregation. To see the full series go to Author Archives: George Bullard.] For overly churched culture congregations to connect with non-churched culture people, they need…
Can congregations stuck in an overly churched culture change?
[Note: This is a follow-up post to Many Congregations Are Stuck in an Overly Churched Culture] The Situation Congregations where 30 percent or more of the active membership is at least 60 years old, and they have been professing Christians…