BLUEFIELD — More than 100 members of Baptist churches from across Virginia and Tennessee spent part of their summer on the campus of Bluefield College. The Baptist missionaries with skills from carpentry to cooking worked five weeks in May…
‘Big Bucket Brigade’ ministers to Africans
RICHMOND — When you think of a “bucket brigade,” you likely picture buckets filled with water and a line of people. On July 12 there was a “Big Bucket Brigade” at Hatcher Memorial Baptist Church in Richmond, but the 23…
Faith that sings: Hymns make theology portable
“If you know what hymns a congregation is most addicted to, you will be able to infer what, in Christianity, means most to that church.” When the late hymnist Erik Routley wrote that in 1982, worship wars in the United…
‘Big Bucket Brigade’ ministers to Africans
RICHMOND — When you think of a “bucket brigade,” you likely picture buckets filled with water and a line of people. On July 12 there was a “Big Bucket Brigade” at Hatcher Memorial Baptist Church in Richmond, but the 23…
Leesburg couple faces harrowing experience as hostages in their own home
LEESBURG — Looking down the muzzle of a pistol held by a stranger in your own home changes the day’s priorities. It certainly did for Bob and Frances Belote on Friday, July 10. Both in their 80s, they had just…
Looking for leaders: What’s a church to do?
When the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship held its general assembly recently in Houston, leaders documented a quiet shift that went almost unnoticed among the 2,000 people attending the annual meeting. For the first time, graduates of the theological schools that partner…
Sharing the faith in harrowing circumstances
LEESBURG — Looking down the muzzle of a pistol held by a stranger in your own home changes the day’s priorities. It certainly did for Bob and Frances Belote on Friday, July 10. Both in their 80s, they had just…
Those in need find assistance at churches’ Saturday Free Market
RICHMOND — A crowd gathers on Saturdays before the doors open at 10 a.m., eagerly anticipating what will be found on the tables and racks inside. Some waiting outside will immediately head for the clothing department. Others are hopeful to…
Bluefield College hosts teens on a mission to ‘Impact Virginia’
BLUEFIELD — More than 200 youth from Baptist churches across Virginia swarmed the Bluefield College campus June 28-July 4 to make an "impact" on Greater Bluefield through service projects in the community. Virginia Baptist youth repair the roof on a…
Sewing skills are key for Portsmouth congregation
PORTSMOUTH — It started with a sewing pattern and a mission conference. Bruce Powers, pastor of Westhaven Baptist Church in Portsmouth, attended the MC2 conference sponsored by the VBMB last summer at Eagle Eyrie. Staffers of the Woman’s Missionary Union…
Virginia Baptists respond to W. Va. floods
GILBERT, W.Va. (BP) — In the wake of flash floods that washed away rural roads and even mountainsides over six southern West Virginia counties on Mother’s Day weekend, Virginia Baptists joined other Baptist disaster relief feeding units and mud-out crews…
Virginia Baptist Foundation awards scholarships
RICHMOND — Ann F. Brown, chair of the scholarship committee of the Virginia Baptist Foundation, announced 53 scholarship recipients totaling $101,000 during the second annual Scholarship Recognition Service held May 31, at the Virginia Baptist Resource Center. Scholarship recipients gathered…