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How transparent are churches and denominations?
Does communication make much difference in churches? Can’t most members find out what they need or want to know? The complex answer often boils down to the distinction between “need” and “want” — and who controls the desired information.
Baptist leaders combat mental illness, suicide
Frank Page, former president of the SBC, was getting ready to work in the yard in the fall of 2009 when the phone rang. His daughter was on the line. Daddy, I love you, she said. Tell Mama and the girls I love them, too. Then she was gone.
Still obsessed with End Times
Just because Jesus told his disciples God alone knows when he will return, that hasn’t prevented 2,000 years of Christian speculation, especially during times of cultural crisis.
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By David Gibson
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Thursday, May 16, 2013 |
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Even before Kermit Gosnell was convicted May 13, abortion opponents and those who support keeping it legal were convinced the case could reshape an abortion debate that has remained static. Yet hopes for a game-changing impact may go unanswered for a variety of reasons.
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By Barbara Francis
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Thursday, May 16, 2013 |
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Following the mandate in James 1:27 for Christ’s followers to care for orphans in need, Community Heights Baptist Church in Southwest Virginia has initiated a ministry it calls 127JUNCTION to mobilize its members to care for the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of orphans.
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By Barbara Francis
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Thursday, May 16, 2013 |
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A recent survey found that the number of Americans reading electronic books has doubled since 2009. The trend from books printed in ink on paper to those downloaded from a computer is creating change — from the aisles of the large booksellers to the shelves of the church library.
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By Barbara Francis
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Thursday, May 16, 2013 |
Staff moves, church news and more
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By Bob Allen
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Monday, May 13, 2013 |
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Career journalist and champion for a free Baptist press R.G. “Gene” Puckett died May 12, months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Puckett, 80, worked as a Baptist journalist longer than any person in the 20th century. He was an editor in both Maryland and North Carolina.
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By Gary Strauss, USA Today
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Monday, May 13, 2013 |
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Residents of a rural Virginia county and some Muslim groups in the state say they’re surprised and angered that the body of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was buried in an Islamic cemetery in Doswell, a community in Caroline County about 30 miles north of Richmond.
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By Robert Dilday
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Wednesday, May 08, 2013 |
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Mark Harris, pastor of a prominent conservative Baptist church in Charlotte and president of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, is considering a bid for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate, the Charlotte Observer reported May 6.
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By Robert Dilday
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Tuesday, May 07, 2013 |
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Two Baptist associations — one in Virginia’s highly-urbanized Hampton Roads, the other on the state’s rural Eastern Shore — have merged to form a new network of 96 churches. The Bridge Network of Churches was inspired partly by the 17-mile span across the Chesapeake Bay.
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By Aaron Weaver
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Tuesday, May 07, 2013 |
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On the heels of her April 20-25 tour of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship churches in Virginia, CBF executive coordinator Suzii Paynter traveled to North Carolina for another five-city tour that included stops in Asheville, Winston-Salem, Greenville, Raleigh and Charlotte.
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By Robert Dilday
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Tuesday, May 07, 2013 |
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Israel Galindo, dean and professor of Christian formation and leadership at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, will become associate dean for lifelong learning at Columbia Seminary in Decatur, Ga. Aug. 1. As a faculty member since 1999, Galindo helped create the seminary’s Christian formation concentrations and designed and implemented BTSR’s online program.
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By Robert Dilday
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Tuesday, May 07, 2013 |
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Two more county governing boards in the Mid-Atlantic are under fire for giving preference to Christian prayers in opening official meetings. The two counties — one in Maryland, the other in North Carolina — join others in the region whose practices have been challenged.
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By Robert Dilday
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Monday, May 06, 2013 |
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Since the Richmond Baptist Association voted to retain the membership of a church which ordained a gay man to the ministry, a quarter of the association’s congregations have ended ties or are considering it. But the pastor of the church at the heart of the controversy said May 5 she is committed to “discerning together what the future of the RBA holds.”
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By Robert Dilday
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Friday, May 03, 2013 |
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John Chandler, leader of the Spence Network, recently released three books — Praying the Kings, Praying the Prophets and Praying Wisdom — aiming to engage leaders more deeply in Scripture. He recently discussed his motivations for writing the books, and his plans for additional ones in the near future.
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PERSPECTIVE
LISA COLE SMITH
Time for a vibrant imagination
JIM WHITE
The nation's mean-spirited discourse seeps into churches
ALEX GALLIMORE
A connecting tool turns divisive
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A British strand of Islam is emerging as more people become converts
| Economist, 5/18
• Church of Scotland revises controversial Israel report | BBC, 5/17
• Georgia governor engaged in Bible dispute | Philadelphia Inquirer, 5/16
• Russian church in China has first service in 51 years | Kuala Lumpur News Straits Times, 5/15
• Christian churches back Jews facing anti-Semitism in Hungary | Reuters, 5/14
• Remembering Roger Williams and 350 years of religious freedom | Rhode Island Public Radio, 5/13
• Religious references vary in constitutions around the world | Economist, 5/13
• Va. woman says faith prompted her efforts to help get Boston Marathon bombing suspect buried | Washington Post, 5/11
• Church of Scotland agrees to reword report on Israeli settlements | Guardian, 5/9
• Church must show initiative on 'end-of-life' issues, says Irish archbishop | Irish Times, 5/9
More Herald Newswire ...
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