LUMBERTON, N.C. — The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina began preparations March 15-16 to celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2014, initiating a “discernment process” to set future priorities and announcing a new annual mission and ministry offering to be…
Increasingly disturbed by effects of sex trafficking, two teens fight back — with purses
ROCKY MOUNT, Va. — Many women have an obsession with purses. They love to dress in style and complete their look with a fashionable handbag. Recently two teens in Rocky Mount, Va., carried women’s obsession with purses to a new…
Ridgecrest pulls the plug on what might have been one of N.C.’s largest solar energy projects
RIDGECREST, N.C. — Ridgecrest Baptist Conference Center has withdrawn from a project that would have created one of North Carolina’s largest solar energy projects because of the amount of land required. Ridgecrest Baptist Conference Center is about 20 miles east…
N.C.’s Rowan County latest in Mid-Atlantic to grapple with sectarian prayers at official meetings
SALISBURY, N.C. — North Carolina’s Rowan County is the latest jurisdiction in the Mid-Atlantic to grapple with the role of sectarian prayers at official government meetings. The American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina filed a lawsuit against Rowan’s board…
Obama names Baptist church-state expert at Wake Forest divinity school to direct faith-based office
WASHINGTON — Melissa Rogers, a Baptist church-state expert on the faculty of Wake Forest University School of Divinity, has been named director of the White House’s Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Rogers, director of the Center for Religion and…
Newly-shorn heads offer striking spiritual lesson as church participates in ‘hair’ ministry
ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. — It wasn’t just monetary gifts that were dedicated to God as the congregation sang the Doxology at First Baptist Church in Elizabeth City, N.C., one Sunday morning in February. As the music sounded, 11 people with…
Dementia sufferers and their caregivers find place to connect at Asheville church’s Memory Café
ASHEVILLE — Walk into the Memory Café in the dining room at First Baptist Church in Asheville on the third Thursday afternoon of any month, and you’ll see people sitting comfortably at tables. Some play cards or dominoes. Some work…
Bill in North Carolina Senate would permit elective Bible classes in public high schools
RALEIGH — Public high schools in North Carolina could offer elective Bible classes if a bill introduced in the state Senate Feb. 26 is adopted by the General Assembly. The bill by Republican Sen. Stan Bingham of Denton, N.C., would…
Inaugural conference part of Missio Alliance’s goal to navigate changing religious landscape
RICHMOND — Missio Alliance, an evangelical coalition formed last year to help Christians navigate the changing religious landscape in America, will flesh out that goal at a three-day conference in April featuring a range of speakers from across the evangelical…