By Vicki Brown Don Wideman is a grateful man who, these days, concentrates on family and an adult Sunday school class at First Baptist Church in North Kansas City, Mo. The executive director of the Missouri Baptist Convention from 1987…
Mohler applauds discovery of gravitational waves but says it doesn’t prove anything
By Bob Allen A Southern Baptist theologian says astronomers study the universe not only through telescopes, but also a worldview lens that causes them to interpret their observations in ways contrary to biblical truth. Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist…
It takes a village to assist woman through adoption decision
By Aimee Freston Rachel Gabucci was 27 years old, six months pregnant and unmarried. Scared and nervous, she was aware of the realities of raising a child on her own. She knew she could love and emotionally support her child,…
Youth emerges from foster care to build life, help others
By Aimee Freston Courtney Greer is determined. She’s responsible, mature and hardworking — characteristics not often found in a 19-year-old, but after spending eight years in the foster care system, Greer was forced to grow up a bit faster than most…
Florida pastor named president of Northern Seminary
By Robert Dilday A pastor who for nearly 20 years has led Baptist churches in the South will take the helm of Northern Baptist Theological Seminary in suburban Chicago, the school’s board of trustees announced Jan. 29. William D. Shiell,…
Kenyan earns her way to U.S. university to improve her ministry in Africa
By Chelsea White When asked about her work for orphans and children in poverty, the normally upbeat Rose Wasike pauses as tears fill her eyes. “My parents were very poor,” she said. “I was the third child out of 11,…
Every day counts for 112-year-old Sina Hayes
By Norman Jameson Like a good son, Carlyle Hayes calls his mother every day to say he loves her. Unlike most good sons, Carlyle is 90 years old — and his mother is 112 and half. Sina Hayes is thought…
Lawsuit accuses once-admired evangelical family expert of sexual abuse
By Bob Allen A disgraced evangelical family expert accused in a lawsuit of sexually abusing or harassing 10 women was an early proponent of ideas now part and parcel of the Baptist Faith and Message. A second amended complaint filed…
Inspired by Obama, Baptist pastor offers ‘state of the church’
By Jeff Brumley Merianna Neely Harrelson was watching President Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday night when it struck her: someone should do a state-of-the-church address. Then Harrelson, pastor at Emmanuel Baptist Fellowship in Lexington, S.C., thought that someone…
Longtime Baptist leader Bill Self dies at 83
By Robert Dilday Bill Self, a longtime Atlanta-area pastor and prominent Baptist leader for decades, died Jan. 9 after a long struggle with Lou Gehrig’s Disease. He would have turned 84 on Jan. 10. Self was pastor emeritus of Johns…
Baptist minister seeks to comfort war-ravaged refugees in Belgium
By Ashleigh Bugg Children from more than 30 ethnicities play on the winding stone streets of Antwerp, Belgium. Some don religious head coverings while others wear their hair in intricate braids as they run through the fountains at a nearby…
Accrediting agency head stepping down
By Bob Allen Daniel Aleshire, a former faculty member at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has announced plans to retire as executive director of the Association of Theological Schools no later than June 2017. Aleshire, 68, was hired in 1990 as…
Former CBF moderator dies
By Bob Allen Donna Forrester, the first ordained woman to serve as moderator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, died Dec. 31, more than 14 years after being diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. Forrester, 66, served as minister of pastoral care…
Myanmar native serves fellow refugees through Student.Go
By Greg Warner At the age of 7, Mary Htoo and her family fled civil war and persecution in their native Burma. They spent the next seven-plus years living amidst the poverty and confinement of a mountaintop refugee camp just…