BLUEFIELD, Va. — The Bluefield College Rams and a local grocery store will kick off the 2013 Sack the Quarterback hunger relief program with a special Rams Football Day at Food City in Bluefield on Aug. 17. From noon to…
Church gets creative when Braille hymnal is called for, launches team of volunteers to meet need
RICHMOND — As First Baptist Church in Richmond prepared to introduce its new hymnal, Celebrating Grace, to the congregation nearly two years ago, it realized there wasn’t a Braille application for the new hymnal or plans to produce one. The…
Thunder rolls on for motorcycle riders as annual gathering plans mountain event
Can you hear it? It’s thunder rolling through the hills and valleys of central Virginia. Virginia Baptist motorcycle riders and their friends will gather Oct. 4-6 at Watermarks Camp in Scottsville, Va., for the 2013 edition of Thunder in the…
Children’s ministry certification enhances churches’ work with the youngest in the congregation
RICHMOND — For nearly a decade the Virginia Baptist Mission Board’s children’s ministry certification has impacting churches across Virginia. Begun in 2005, the certification courses are designed to help prepare those “interested in a lifetime commitment to ministering to children…
Committee appointed to select candidate for Woman’s Missionary Union of Virginia executive
RICHMOND — An eight-member search committee has been named to find a new executive director/treasurer of Woman’s Missionary Union of Virginia. Pat Wright The committee, which held an organizational meeting in early August, was named by WMUV’s board of trustees,…
Former WMUV president Ann Brown to be nominated as BGAV first vice president
RICHMOND — Ann Brown, a Gretna, Va., laywoman widely involved in Virginia Baptist life, will be nominated for first vice president of the Baptist General Association of Virginia — a position whose incumbent for almost a decade and a half…
Furniture giveaway is Godsend for international students arriving on Virginia Tech’s campus
BLACKSBURG, Va. — Moving to a college campus is a rite of passage for new students. But for international students, setting up a new household in an apartment or house, usually with other roommates, can be especially difficult as they…
Matching-gifts campaign smoothing the way for BTSR’s move to new location
RICHMOND — Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond’s recently-launched Forward Together campaign is helping the school make the move from its historic Brook Road campus several miles north to Villa Park. A group of BTSR supporters created the $1 million matching…
For disaster relief volunteers, sense of call remains intact despite long hours and exhausting work
For many long-time Virginia Baptist disaster relief volunteers, the memories are clear — but the dates, places and events can be difficult to keep straight. Was it Hurricane Charlie in 2004 or Hugo in 1989 or Irene in 2011? Were…
Richmond church launches fourth campus with aid of existing congregation
Bon Air Baptist Church, a congregation with multiple campuses on Richmond’s Southside, has launched a new church on the site of New Covenant Baptist Church in the city’s near West End. Called Bon Air Baptist @ the Village, this church…
A Buena Vista, Va., middle school has new life, thanks to church’s partnership with community
BUENA VISTA, Va. — Parry McCluer Middle School is located in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley — one block from Buena Vista Baptist Church. Like many aging school buildings in small towns, it is full of memories for generations of students who…
Neo-monastic communities like Grace and Main may serve as future models for church plants
DANVILLE, Va. (ABP) — Intentional, service-focused Christian communities are getting a lot of buzz in the emergent and missional movements these days, and they’re catching the eye of Baptist groups like the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. But the movement — sometimes…