By Bob Allen The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has retired one of its top leadership positions in a new structure aligned with priorities identified by the 2012 Task Force. Connie McNeill, coordinator for administration at the Atlanta-based Fellowship since March 2005,…
CBF eliminates coordinator position
By Bob Allen The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has retired one of its top leadership positions in a new structure aligned with priorities identified by the 2012 Task Force. Connie McNeill, coordinator for administration at the Atlanta-based Fellowship since March 2005,…
What do Millennials want from denominations?
Associated Baptist Press writer Jeff Brumley recently posted an article responding to research by the Public Religion Research Institute suggesting that “the rise of religious progressives and a conservative decline presents a challenge to those in the middle, including moderate Baptists.” …
Youth trip boosts Miss. Delta town
By Jeff Brumley No one expected a vacation Bible school run by a visiting Baptist youth group to be a catalyst for racial healing in Shaw,Miss. Yet, by all accounts that’s just what the June visit by 34 youngsters from Houston’s South Main…
Enthusiastic about our Fellowship
On the night of June 28, I posted to Facebook this status update from my hotel room in Greensboro, North Carolina: From Wednesday’s pre-assembly Baptist Women in Ministry celebration to the closing General Assembly communion service tonight, I’ve never felt…
CBF pastor seeks immigration reform
By Bob Allen A Cooperative Baptist Fellowship pastor joined fellow clergy July 24 in a press conference on the U.S. Capitol Building lawn calling for broad immigration reform. “We are not here to endorse any specific bill or any particular…
Remembering Will Campbell: does anyone here NOT know Amazing Grace?
Remembering Will Campbell: Does Anyone Here NOT Know Amazing Grace? Memorial Service for Will Campbell, Mt. Juliet, Tennessee Saturday, June 22, 2013 Sitting under the words “Love your enemies” I feel my heart swell. They are painted on the walls high…
Book challenges ‘gendered’ pulpit
By Bob Allen A “gendered” pulpit that defines what a preacher looks like as exclusively straight and male hinders women and members of the LGBT community from leadership in preaching and worship, theologian, author and Baptist pastor Angela Yarber says…
Baptists team up for ‘Loving Oklahoma’
By Jeff Brumley The Baptist General Convention of Texas and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship announced today they will host a major disaster-recovery campaign in August for tornado-battered Oklahomans. “Loving Oklahoma” will be held Aug. 5-10 in five areas in the…
Stunned by arson, church will worship Sunday
By Jeff Brumley Investigators now know that arson was the cause of two fires that struck Providence Baptist Church in Charlotte, N.C., Wednesday morning. What authorities and the CBF-affiliated church still don’t know is who did it and why. “At…
Spiritual formation: more than a buzz phrase
Two words combined to be a buzz phrase have appeared at different times and in different ways in Baptist life lately, especially at CBF General Assembly last month: Spiritual. Formation. The new Dawnings CBF initiative that offers a missional visioning…
What’s next for CBF chaplaincy?
By Jeff Brumley Jim Pope will become interim chaplaincy and pastoral counseling endorser for CBF when George Pickle steps down from that position on June 30. What he will not become – ever – is a candidate for the Pickle’s…