By Jeff Brumley The value and purpose of church membership is becoming an increasingly hot topic in Baptist and other congregations these days. And that’s “hot” as in controversial and heated, not popular. And it’s one that occasionally pits older…
CBF Virginia leader takes job with BTSR
By Bob Allen Rob Fox, field coordinator for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Virginia since 2009, is stepping down at the end of August to become vice president of institutional advancement at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond. Fox, a BTSR…
Baptist churches learn that serving schools yields big rewards
By Vicki Brown and Jeff Brumley Serving Clark Elementary School helps the roughly 40 members of Woodlawn Avenue Baptist Church in Wichita, Kan., realize they have a purpose, a contribution to make to their community. For members at First Baptist…
Hispanic faith could revive the rest of the church, say speakers
By Jeff Brumley and Kalie Lowrie Hispanic Baptists and other Christians have so much to offer the American church and society that they must avoid the pitfalls of secularism and consumerism, Latino religious leaders say. That was part of the message…
Is CBF allergic to “contemporary” worship?
Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF), young adults, “contemporary” worship, progressive theology, and “nice” Christians—let’s talk about it. To begin, I guess you, as the reader, should know I’m a 27-year-old, white male in full time ministry, and some of my closest…
Chaplain: Military trains you to see ministry as God’s work, not yours
By Jeff Brumley Imagine spending three or four years in a place, building new ministries or reviving existing ones, only to be replaced by someone else and sent somewhere else to do it all over again. It’s a feeling that…
Cooperative Baptists challenged to build bridge over ‘gaping wound of racism’
By Aaron Weaver and Carrie McGuffin “Salvation is about healing and wholeness. Now our broken world could use some of that,” said Jim Somerville, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Richmond, Va., as he addressed the topic of salvation…
Ebola victim’s fiancée speaks at BNG’s annual event
By Bob Allen The fiancée of the first man to die of Ebola in the United States says the tragic story of love, war and quarantine was too complicated for a newspaper story or TV news segment to fully tell,…
How Long, O Lord?
“How Long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?” the Psalmist asks. African Americans ask this question in the wake of the murder of nine Christians at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina during a Wednesday…