CLYDE, N.C. (ABP) — Economic life is never easy in western North Carolina’s mountains and 70 percent of the poor are locked into “generational poverty” that holds them back like the concrete anchors on their mobile homes. At least the…
Ruby Fulbright to retire from North Carolina Woman’s Missionary Union
RALEIGN, N.C. (ABP) — Ruby Fulbright, executive director/treasurer of Woman’s Missionary Union of North Carolina, since May 1, 2002, will retire Dec. 31. Fulbright, who led the organization to make a dramatic break from the Baptist State Convention of…
New monastics practice Jesus’ hospitality and find stability
DURHAM, N.C. (ABP) — A radical encounter with a homeless beggar huddled in the shadow of power confronted Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove with the Matthew 25 claims of Jesus and a realization he could never change the world being “president for Jesus.”…
New Meredith president believes in strong role for women’s college
RALEIGH, N.C. (ABP) — Two weeks after Jo Allen took office as the eighth president of Meredith College, the shrinking pool of women’s colleges blew drier as Peace College across town decided to admit males to stem its enrollment drop….
North Carolina association ousts church which called woman pastor
MOUNT AIRY, N.C. (ABP) — Surry Baptist Association in North Carolina expelled Flat Rock Baptist Church in Mount Airy from membership July 26, two weeks after their new female pastor started at the church. The association of 65 churches…
Churches, city preparing to make anniversary time of healing
NEW YORK (ABP) — As the calendar pages turn inexorably toward Sept. 11, New York City is preparing for a flood of solemn remembrance prompted by the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attack that claimed 3,000 lives and launched a…
Mars Hill church pours itself into North Carolina county
MARS HILL, N.C. (ABP) — No one goes hungry in Madison County, North Carolina, for lack of effort by Mars Hill Baptist Church. Mars Hill Baptist, adjacent to Mars Hill College in the mountains of western North Carolina north of…
Advocates seek thousands of foster parents in churches across nation
Hundreds of thousands of families are needed to provide foster care for nearly a half-million children and teenagers who for their own safety cannot continue to live at home. Some of those families are found in Baptist churches, and those…
Early into children’s services, Baptists trying to keep pace with changes
In the first decades following the Civil War when poverty shadowed widows and children of fallen soldiers in a dramatically disrupted South, Baptists and other Christian denominations started orphanages to care for them. Today, the South is dotted with campuses…
Women in ministry pioneer seeks glimpses of holy as prison chaplain
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (ABP) — When Nancy Sehested finished her powerful sermon at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina state meeting in March, people were moved both by the message and to ask, “Where has she been?” As one of…
Womens’ mission dolls project introduce gospel around the world
MONROE, N.C. (ABP) — A single idea to make evangelistic dolls for children in other lands seeded an ecumenical project in North Carolina that has united women of many different churches to touch hearts worldwide. “We asked for an apple…
OPINION: Grabbing the thread of forgiveness
A 1972 photograph of 9-year-old Kim Phuc fleeing her burning village in Vietnam — her clothes incinerated from her body and her skin falling from her back and arms — captured the world’s attention. Some say it fanned the flame…