NASHVILLE (BP) – Multitudes prayed in thousands of venues on the 2018 National Day of Prayer, capped with a televised national prayer service scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Eastern today (May 3) in the U.S. Capitol. Southern Baptist Convention Pastors' Conference President H.B. Charles, pastor of Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Fla., will be a main speaker at the 67th annual observance in Washington. Former SBC president Ronnie Floyd is the 2018 National Day of Prayer (NDOP) … [Read more...]
Personal Touch Drives Churchgoer Giving
NASHVILLE, Tenn.— When it comes to charity, a personal touch works 10 times better than Facebook – at least for churchgoers. A new report from Nashville-based LifeWay Research found more than half of Protestant churchgoers say a personal connection inspired them to give money to a charity for the first time. Social media such as Facebook inspired only 4 percent of similar donations. Three-quarters of churchgoers support at least one charity besides their church. Almost half do volunteer … [Read more...]
Army chaplain fights charge of unlawful discrimination
WASHINGTON (BP) – Southern Baptist chaplain Jerry Scott Squires is fighting a U.S. Army investigator’s charge of unlawful discrimination for refusing to preside over a marriage retreat including same-sex couples. But Squires followed federal law and Army and Southern Baptist Convention chaplaincy protocol when he rescheduled a Feb. 9 Strong Bonds marriage retreat in order to involve a non-SBC chaplain, thereby accommodating the attendance of a lesbian couple, First Liberty Institute said … [Read more...]
‘I Can Only Imagine,’ starring a Missouri native, still strong in sixth week
LOS ANGELES (BP) – The MercyMe faith biopic “I Can Only Imagine” continues to draw strong audiences nearly six weeks after its debut, grossing $79.4 million. Featuring the story behind MercyMe’s crossover megahit of the same name – and starring J. Michael Findley, a Lebanon, Mo. native and the son of Heritage Baptist Church’s pastor of administration, Wayne Finley – I Can Only Imagine placed twelfth at the box office in its sixth weekend April 20-22, earning nearly $8 million and showing … [Read more...]
Raytown pastor encourages prayer, unity after clergy members meet with Mike Pence
WASHINGTON (BP) – Prayer for America's leaders and reports of a pastors' meeting with Vice President Mike Pence were among the components of worship in some Southern Baptist churches April 15. The prayer times and reports followed an April 11 meeting involving Pence and several dozen pastors and their wives in Washington for the Mega Metro Conference, an annual gathering for pastors of Southern Baptist churches with average worship attendance of at least 3,000 or average Sunday School … [Read more...]
Posthumous conception raises ‘host of ethical issues’
NASHVILLE (BP) -- The legal and moral propriety of conceiving a child with a dead person's egg or sperm is among the latest fronts being discussed in bioethics. In Ireland, legislation is under consideration that would permit reproductive cells from deceased individuals to be used by their spouses or partners to conceive children posthumously, according to media reports. The Irish legislature's Joint Committee on Health discussed the bill once in January and again in February, a … [Read more...]
‘Practicing radically ordinary hospitality’
Butterfield, Rosaria. The Gospel Comes with a House Key: Practicing Radically Ordinary Hospitality in Our Post-Christian World. Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway. 240 pp. $19.99. Rosaria Butterfield defines radically ordinary hospitality as “using your Christian home in a daily way that seeks to make strangers neighbors, and neighbors family of God” (31). Such hospitality makes your home a hospital, a place where people can find healing and grace, physical and spiritual good. It makes your home … [Read more...]
MLK50 raises $1.5 million scholarship to help minority students in Memphis
MEMPHIS – More than $1.5 million dollars have been raised for the “MLK50 Dream Forward Scholarship Initiative” that will allow Christian colleges and seminaries to invest in the educational future of minority students. Two schools with Missouri Baptist ties – Hannibal-LaGrange University and Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary – are participating in the scholarship initiative. Through this scholarship initiative, a broad range of financial aid resources will be given to selected … [Read more...]
‘I Can Only Imagine’ film still strong in 4th week
LOS ANGELES (BP) -- The MercyMe faith biopic "I Can Only Imagine" continues to draw strong audiences nearly a month after its debut, grossing $68.5 million and gaining 1,200 more theater screens. Featuring the story behind MercyMe's crossover megahit of the same name, I Can Only Imagine placed sixth at the box office in its fourth weekend April 6-8, earning nearly $8 million and showing in 246 more theaters over the previous weekend, Box Office Mojo reported. Roadside Attractions' … [Read more...]
Missouri Baptists remember, strive to live the ‘dream’
KANSAS CITY – On April 9, 1968, nearly a week after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated and on the day of his burial, riots broke out across Kansas City. At the time, Gary Jones was only 12 years old. But he recalls standing on the corner of 12th and Woodland, watching protesters march up the street. Suddenly, a shot was fired and a woman standing nearby threw Jones to the ground to save him. “It was such a frightening moment in my life,” Jones, now a Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) … [Read more...]
No end in sight for battle over religious freedom
Conflict over religious freedom will continue for future generations of Missourians. Many observers feel the U.S. Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision in 2015 that legalized same-sex “marriage,” repeated the mistake it made with Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion. Rather than let the people sort through the issue, the high court – like a blunt instrument – cutoff public debate, triggering yet another decades-long struggle – this time over religious freedom. In the last decade … [Read more...]
Abstinence ed could benefit from HHS tweaks
WASHINGTON (BP) -- Tweaks to a federal grant program that allots $260 million to family planning, mostly for lower-income Americans, have drawn praise from advocates of abstinence-based sex education and criticism from Planned Parenthood. Among the tweaks at issue, this year's grant announcement for Title X Family Planning Services Grants encourages applicants to consider informing teens of the "benefits of delaying sex." Another change this year by the U.S. Department of Health and … [Read more...]
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