By Robert Dilday Rob McCleland has resigned as executive director and CEO of the 400-church North American Baptist Conference to become executive of an Atlanta-based Christian leadership training organization. McCleland, who had led the 74,000-member NAB since 2007, will assume…
As new year tolls, ABP/Religious Herald merger launches new media platform
By Robert Dilday After months of preparation, the merger between Associated Baptist Press and the Religious Herald took effect yesterday, launching a new digital and print media platform aimed at enhancing the mission and heritage of both organizations. Legal processes to create…
Baptists host interfaith Xmas in Georgia
By Bob Allen Baptists in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia initiated a historic Christmas Day gathering of Muslims and Christians hailed as a model for interfaith relations in other countries. Muslim clerics from both Shia and Sunni traditions from…
Is ‘Duck Dynasty’ the next SBC cause?
By Bob Allen A year after targeting the Boy Scouts for dropping their ban on openly gay youth, Southern Baptists meeting June 10-11 in Baltimore may have found a new cause célèbre in a reality TV show star suspended by…
Gushee to work with CBF on advocacy
By Bob Allen David Gushee, Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics and director of the Center for Theology and Public Life at Mercer University, begins a one-year term in January as theologian-in-residence for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. “My task will…
Busy year ahead for religious liberty, BJC
By Jeff Brumley In some ways, 2013 was a typical year for the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, with legal briefs to file, politicians and Supreme Court justices to sway and religious liberty to defend. In other ways, it was a ground-breaking year…
Smithwick out at Ky. Baptist home
By Bob Allen The president of a Baptist child care agency has resigned after a no-confidence vote in November by the Kentucky Baptist Convention for recommending that Sunrise Children’s Services drop its ban on hiring gays. No formal announcement was…
Lilly grants address ministers’ finances
By Bob Allen Seminaries tied to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Southern Baptist Convention were among 51 theology schools across the United States awarded more than $12.3 million by the Lilly Endowment in the second round of its initiative to…
Papers filed in Glorieta lawsuit
By Bob Allen An Arkansas couple suing Southern Baptist Convention officials in federal court claim that secular courts have jurisdiction over the internal workings of a church when it involves property disputes or misuse of its articles of incorporation. In…