SEATTLE (BP) – As pastor of Epic Life Church in Seattle with only five employees, Keith Carpenter sees the Paycheck Protection Plan loan as a godsend during a devastating economic downturn prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic. So does pastor A.B. Vines, whose multisite New Seasons Church in Spring Valley, Calif., employs about 50. But some pastors have theological and ethical concerns with the loan, which is administered by the U.S. Small Business Administration. "The purpose behind the loan … [Read more...]
SBC EC grants Uth extension for Pastors’ Conference response
ORLANDO, Fla. (BP) – SBC Pastors' Conference president David Uth has been granted an extended time for fasting and prayer before responding to the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee's stipulation that program adjustments be made before space is allocated at the 2020 SBC Annual Meeting venue. Responding to dissension over the 2020 SBC Pastors' Conference (SBCPC) speaker roster, the SBC EC originally voted Feb. 18 to give the SBCPC until Feb. 24 to make suitable changes to its … [Read more...]
Love story spotlights Jeremy Camp’s creative muse
NASHVILLE (BP) – Jeremy Camp was driving down California’s Big Bear Mountain, fasting and praying for a breakthrough from pain and grief. Melissa had died only three months after their wedding. Camp sought solace in the mountains, he recalled in an interview with Baptist Jan. 21, nearly 20 years later. It was his song “Walk by Faith,” still on a demo that day in 2001, that helped him heal. “I remember saying, ‘I will walk by faith, even when I cannot see, because this broken road prepares … [Read more...]
One Christian killed, 12 kidnapped in Nigeria
KADUNA, Nigeria (BP) – A Baptist woman is dead and 12 Christians including church members, school students and teachers remain kidnapped in two successive incidents in Kaduna, Nigeria, widely attributed to militant Fulani herdsmen. In the latest incident, herdsmen killed Ezra Haruna of Godiya Baptist Church in Ungwan Barau village and kidnapped four of her fellow church members, Morning Star News reported Thursday (Oct. 10). Many residents fled into nearby bushes, Morning Star … [Read more...]
School year spurs religious liberty battles
CHICAGO (BP) – The 2019 school year has brought religious liberty challenges for college and high school students in the U.S., including action in Illinois, Tennessee and North Carolina. In Illinois, four Wheaton College students have sued the city of Chicago for the right to distribute religious flyers and preach in a public park after the city set new rules against such action. In Tennessee, two high schools faced backlash from the Freedom from Religion Foundation when a coach led … [Read more...]
Church models low-cost, replicable homeless ministry
EL CAJON, Calif. (BP) – Any church can do this, pastor Rolland Slade told Baptist Press. On a vacant lot at Slade's senior pastorate Meridian Baptist Church in El Cajon, Calif., a tiny cabin is being built as an emergency, secure shelter for homeless women and children. "All that we were doing before was growing tumbleweeds," Slade told BP Aug. 7, regarding the land. "Where now, if we're able to build this little village of emergency sleeping cabins, we're able to minister to people. … [Read more...]
Adrian Rogers’ widow to SBC: ‘Keep the Word of God’
NASHVILLE (BP) – Forty years after her husband began leading the Southern Baptist Convention in the Conservative Resurgence promoting a doctrine of biblical inerrancy, Joyce Rogers still hopes the best for the SBC. "I would hope that they would keep the Word of God in the center of their belief (and continue) in the inerrancy of the Word of God," she told Baptist Press during a telephone interview, June 28 from her doctor's waiting room. "My husband really was the one that fought for that, … [Read more...]
Chitwood on border thanks Baptists for Venezuela aid
VENEZUELA (BP) – International Mission Board President Paul Chitwood ends today (May 13) a weeklong trip that included the Venezuelan border where he encouraged Baptists and area convention leaders ministering to refugees amid the nation's collapsed economy and political strife. "We're thankful that Southern Baptists are here ministering to the needs of people who really are in a desperate situation," Chitwood said in a video during his visit to Colombia. Chitwood witnessed scores of … [Read more...]
Removal of stained-glass windows from SWBTS chapel draws mixed reactions from donors
FORT WORTH, Texas (BP) – Forty years after the birth of the Southern Baptist Conservative Resurgence, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary is relocating from the J.W. MacGorman Chapel more than 40 stained glass windows commemorating the era. Two Missouri Baptist leaders were depicted in the windows, including: Missouri Baptist Convention Executive Director John Yeats, who also serves as the Southern Baptist Convention Recording Secretary; and the late Jim Wells, a former Missouri … [Read more...]
Suspect charged in La. black church burnings
T. LANDRY PARISH, La. (BP) – A 21-year-old white man is charged with arson in fires that destroyed three black Baptist churches in St. Landry Parish. Investigators reportedly haven't determined whether the fires were racially motivated. Holden Matthews, the son of a St. Landry Parish sheriff's deputy, was arrested late yesterday afternoon (April 10) and charged with three counts of arson. No motive has been determined, but investigators are considering Matthews' membership in a band that … [Read more...]
Ronnie Floyd elected SBC EC president/CEO
DALLAS (BP) – Ronnie Floyd is the new president and CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee, elected today (April 2) by ballot vote in a called meeting in Dallas. Floyd received 68 of 69 votes cast, the EC said, electing Floyd in an executive session of nearly four hours. A former SBC president, Floyd will resign April 7 from the longtime pastorate of Cross Church in northwest Arkansas and begin his EC leadership immediately, he said in acceptance … [Read more...]
Chick-fil-A founder’s legacy served up in daughter’s new book
ATLANTA (BP) – Mountains fascinate Trudy Cathy White, from the mountaintop outside her childhood home where parents Jeannette and Truett Cathy of Chick-fil-A fame led family Bible studies to the rough spiritual mountains that have tried her faith. White, a Christian entrepreneur, speaker and former International Mission Board missionary, offers wisdom from personal mountaintops in a new book, “Climb Every Mountain: Finding God Faithful in the Journey of Life.” She and husband John built … [Read more...]
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