By Jeff Brumley A handful of Cooperative Baptist churches are proving that short-term mission trips aren’t just for spring break, anymore. First Baptist in Gainesville, Ga. and Calvary Baptist in Lexington, Ky., sent mixed youth and adult groups to Haiti…
Alternative gifts counter Black Friday
By Jeff Brumley When it began nearly a decade ago, the Alternative Christmas Gift Fair at Boulevard Baptist attracted barely 100 church members and generated a few thousand dollars for participating nonprofits and mission groups. But it has since generated…
McAfee to offer Ph.D.
By Bob Allen Mercer University trustees approved McAfee School of Theology’s first doctor of philosophy degree program during their semi-annual board meeting Nov. 8 in Macon, Ga. The Ph.D. in religion with a focus on Baptist studies will be interdepartmental,…
McAfee to offer Ph.D.
By Bob Allen Mercer University trustees approved McAfee School of Theology’s first doctor of philosophy degree program during their semi-annual board meeting Nov. 8. The Ph.D. in religion with a focus on Baptist studies will be interdepartmental, engaging faculty from…
Sandy overshadows Isaac response
By Jeff Brumley Knoxvillian Kendall McCosh spent the better part of last week providing disaster relief — not in the Sandy-plagued Northeast but in Louisiana, rehabbing homes ravaged by winds and flooding from Hurricane Isaac on Aug. 29. McCosh, a former…
NC Baptists discuss racial reconciliation
By Robert Dilday Reconciling racial conflicts requires abandoning a “human point of view,” two pastors told a group of Baptists in North Carolina Nov. 4. The two pastors — one black, the other white — engaged in a “sermon dialogue”…
NJ churches damaged in storm
By Bob Allen Baptist leaders in New Jersey estimate between 20 percent and 30 percent of the state’s 280 American Baptist churches sustained damage from Hurricane Sandy. Lee Spitzer, regional pastor for the American Baptist Churches of New Jersey, described…
Baptists divided on Florida amendment
By Jeff Brumley Florida Amendment 8 has pitted secular civil rights and education activists against religious conservatives in a rhetorical battle over the meaning of religious liberty. But the measure also has re-exposed the divide between Baptists over the separation…
NY, DC churches hunker down for Sandy
By Jeff Brumley Baptist churches and ministries in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast were hunkered down and anxious Oct. 29 to see what happens when Hurricane Sandy arrives. “There’s been a heightened sense of anxiety because we are sitting here waiting,” said Amy…