Twenty-year-old Ira Nealy is from an economically distressed, high-crime community in the Arkansas Delta. Plenty of men his age in his hometown of Helena, Ark., don’t have bright futures. But such statistics don’t define Ira Nealy — thanks, he says,…
World’s restoration is focus of young adult gathering
By Blake Tommey In the field of social psychology, scholars have coined a technical term known as plausibility structure. Among those who seek to understand how people’s thoughts, feelings and behaviors are influenced by others, plausibility structure is essentially a…
Paige Patterson details missiological ‘battle’ at IMB
By Bob Allen Four months before the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board announced plans to eliminate between 600 and 800 jobs, a seminary president said about 750 missionaries need to be removed because they are ineffective or doctrinally unsound….
CBF releases funds for Syrian refugee relief
By Bob Allen The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has sent $15,000 to field personnel in Macedonia and Lebanon to assist with humanitarian aid to Syrian refugees, leaders of the Decatur, Ga.-based Fellowship announced Sept. 10. An estimated 4.1 million Syrians have…
10 years later, one Baptist group reflects on Katrina and its aftermath
By Aaron Weaver Aug. 28, 2005, should have been a music-filled Sunday morning at St. Charles Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans. The congregation was scheduled to sing its top 10 favorite hymns. Instead, that Sunday turned out to be…
Ministers, churches seek end to ‘mission tourism’
By Aaron Weaver Parachute missions. Poverty tourism. Vacationary. These descriptors are frequently invoked to characterize and critique a misguided (western) approach to missions — an approach that many say encourages an unhealthy dependency and paternalism. “Contrary to popular belief, most…
From microbiology to ministry, veteran leader retires from ABC-USA regional post
By Vicki Brown When asked why he gave up microbiology and academia for a pastor’s life, Dwight Stinnett always responds that God has a tremendous sense of humor. God’s humor not only led Stinnett into the pastorate, but also to…
Project impacts low-income families in southwest Virginia
By Chris Shoemaker Dozens of youth from Baptist churches across Virginia converging on the campus of Bluefield College this summer made a difference in the lives of families in southwest Virginia. Impact Virginia, a project sponsored by the Baptist General…
Missionaries from Venezuela learn skills aimed at self-sustaining church planting
By Ken Camp Missionaries from Venezuela learned how to drill water wells and maintain a simple drilling rig recently, thanks to a water ministry operated by Baptists in Texas. At the Everything Jesus Ranch near Seguin, Texas, volunteers with Texas…