NEW YORK (BP) – GuideStone assets have nearly doubled since the bottom of the economic downturn of 2008-2009, trustees learned during their 2014 summer meeting. Total organizational assets rose to $13.1 billion by the end of June, nearly doubling the trough in organizational assets of $6.8 billion experienced in February 2009, GuideStone chief operating officer John R. Jones told trustees. “For 2013, we didn’t think we could be more blessed with the results in the way that God’s hand … [Read more...]
Team of Baptist students share diverse skills in Cuba
CUBA (BP) – A diverse group of students marked the third opportunity for The Baptist College of Florida (BCF) in Graceville, Fla., to participate in the ongoing partnership between Baptists in the state and Cuba. “We are excited to be a part of what God is doing in Cuba,” Thomas A. Kinchen, BCF president, said. “It’s a model partnership between BCF, the Florida Baptist Convention, and the Baptist convention in Cuba. Everybody wins, and no one more than the Cuban people who are … [Read more...]
SBC’s homosexuality position reinforced by 1992 amendment
NASHVILLE (BP) – When a retired Air Force general’s concern over homosexuality prompted an amendment to the Southern Baptist Convention’s constitution two decades ago, few observers realized that his impulse to defend biblical morality would prove instrumental in helping the convention resist pressure to legitimize same-sex relationships for years to come. “Homosexuality was being promoted and was making progress ... and we wanted to protect the Southern Baptist Convention from [a] … [Read more...]
Sudanese Christian escapes death
WASHINGTON (BP) – Meriam Ibrahim, the Sudanese woman whose death sentence caused an international outcry, arrived safely in Italy July 24. Ibrahim was flown on an Italian government jet to Rome with her American husband, Daniel Wani and their two young children. Ibrahim was arrested in February and a Sudanese judge set Ibrahim’s death sentence for “apostasy” (leaving Islam) May 15. However, in June, the ruling was overturned and she was released from prison only to be detained at the … [Read more...]
Truett’s religious liberty legacy celebrated
David Roach/Baptist Press NASHVILLE (BP) – On the 70th anniversary of George W. Truett’s death, present and former pastors of First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas – where Truett pastored for 47 years – said his most famous sermon on religious liberty has implications for the advance of secularism, the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision and GuideStone Financial Resources’ legal fight against the Obama administration’s abortion/contraceptive mandate. “I think I have probably read … [Read more...]
Boko Haram’s Islamic motives ‘ignored’
David Roach/Baptist Press ABUJA, Nigeria (BP) – The United States and other western nations have ignored the religious motivation of the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram and must understand the theological dynamics in Nigeria in order to curb terrorism in the western African country, the archbishop of Nigeria’s Anglican Church told Baptist Press. For a long time, “the United States did not come out to say anything about Boko Haram,” Nicholas Okoh, primate of the Church of Nigeria, … [Read more...]
CP receipts near 3rd quarter goal
NASHVILLE (BP) – Contributions to Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) missions and ministries through the Cooperative Program (CP) totaled 98.38 percent of the budgeted goal through the third quarter ending June 30, SBC Executive Committee President Frank S. Page has announced. The $141,298,445.60 the Executive Committee received during the first nine months of the fiscal year, Oct. 1-June 30, for distribution through the Cooperative Program Allocation Budget is 1.62 percent short of the … [Read more...]
Pro-gay pastor attends White House event
David Roach/Baptist Press WASHINGTON (BP) – The Los Angeles-area Baptist pastor whose church split after he announced he no longer believes all homosexual acts are sinful was President Obama’s guest at the White House LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) Pride Month reception June 30. Danny Cortez, pastor of New Heart Community Church in La Mirada, Calif., attended the reception with his son Drew, who Cortez said in a Feb. 9 sermon is gay. At the reception, Obama … [Read more...]
When Christians killed & why Muslim violence continues
David Roach/Baptist Press NASHVILLE (BP) – Rising death tolls in Iraq and Syria, where Muslim extremists are killing in the name of their faith, represent a stark contrast to the relative lack of religiously motivated killing among modern Christians – a contrast that seminary professors say is attributable to the principle of religious liberty. Religious violence declines wherever religious liberty “has been preached and practiced,” Rick Durst, professor of historical theology at … [Read more...]
Small-town church taps CP’s national/international reach
Karen L. Willoughby/Baptist Press WINNEMUCCA, Nev. (BP) – A short video is shown each week at First Baptist Church in Winnemucca, Nev., illustrating Southern Baptist work either in Nevada, North America or the world. Before the offering is received, worshippers are told that 10 percent of what they give goes through the Cooperative Program (CP) to help fund the work of missionaries such as those in the various videos. Stace Cupples, pastor of the church in the town of less than … [Read more...]
Pastor’s shift on sexuality confronts SBC
David Roach/Baptist Press NASHVILLE (BP) – A Los Angeles-area Southern Baptist church that some media reports said adopted a “third way” position regarding homosexuality in reality never voted to adopt any position on the issue and split into two groups in early June amid unresolvable deadlock, an elder at the church has told Baptist Press. A vice president with the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) Executive Committee (EC) said EC staff members gathered information on New Heart … [Read more...]
At 275th anniversary, church receives founder’s book
ERIN ROACH/Baptist Press ROCHDALE, Mass. (BP) – At a celebration marking its 275th anniversary, Greenville Baptist Church in Rochdale, Mass., received a rare gift: a book from 1764 containing a handwritten note from the church’s founding pastor. The book, a pharmaceutical manual, was uncovered in 1968 when Ira Greenstein was serving as a summer camp counselor and in his free time visited a used bookstore in Springfield, Mass. He picked up the manual from a box of old books and bought … [Read more...]
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