Baptist Press Archive

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

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  • Singing 'Down on My Knees,' Gaines exhorts SBC to pray
    by Diana Chandler, posted Tuesday, February 21, 2017 (2 years ago)

    Photo by Morris Abernathy
    NASHVILLE (BP) -- In Nashville all of 24 hours while his wife Donna was home in Memphis, Southern Baptist Convention President Steve Gaines had already spoken with her four times, he said, because he loves her and simply loves to hear her voice.

    The conversations with his wife served as an analogy to encourage Southern Baptists to talk with God and tell others about our Savior, the theme of his sermon on the first evening of the SBC Executive Committee meeting in Nashville Feb. 20-21. Read More

  • Baptists must be 'correct,' Page says of stewardship
    by Art Toalston, posted Tuesday, February 21, 2017 (2 years ago)

    Photo by Morris Abernathy
    NASHVILLE (BP) -- The use of God's resources -- stewardship -- will gain a strengthened emphasis in Southern Baptist life, Frank S. Page said in addressing the SBC Executive Committee in Nashville.

    "If we do not get the issue of stewardship correct, the work to which God is calling us will simply not be done in a way that would honor Him and glorify Him as He would wish," Page, president of the Executive Committee, said during the opening session of the EC's Feb. 20-21 meeting. Read More

  • Ill. pro-lifers fight publicly-funded abortions bill
    by Meredith Flynn, posted Tuesday, February 21, 2017 (2 years ago)

    Image: iStock/license purchase required
    SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (BP) -- Pro-life advocates in Illinois are urging lawmakers to oppose legislation that would allow the use of public money to fund abortions.

    Illinois House Bill 40, currently awaiting a vote by the state's House of Representatives, would strike from state law a provision that says Illinois' medical assistance program cannot pay for abortions. The bill also would allow state workers' health insurance plans to include coverage for abortions.

    Illinois Right to Life is one of the pro-life organizations that opposes HB 40. Its ... Read More

  • 'Benedict Option': Build communities of resistance
    by Andrew J.W. Smith, posted Tuesday, February 21, 2017 (2 years ago)

    SBTS photo
    LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP) -- With secular culture increasingly marginalizing the Christian faith, believers should leave behind political battles and embrace the communal life exemplified by St. Benedict of Nursia, author Rod Dreher said in the Gheens Lectures, Feb. 7-8 at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

    Although Christianity continues to spread in Asia and the global south, it is rapidly losing its influence in the public square in the West, said Dreher, senior editor of the American Conservative and author of "The Benedict Option," a book to be released March 14 that formed the basis of his lectures. Read More

  • 25 church buildings in Sudan feared to be demolished
    by Morning Star News/Sudan correspondent, posted Tuesday, February 21, 2017 (2 years ago)

    Wikipedia map.
    JUBA, South Sudan (BP) -- State officials in Sudan plan to demolish at least 25 church buildings in the Khartoum area, according to Christian leaders.

    A letter from the Executive Corporation for the Protection of Government Lands, Environment, Roads and Demolition of Irregularities of Khartoum State reveals the names and locations of 25 church buildings marked for demolition, most of them in the Sharq al Neel (East Nile area) locality of Khartoum North. The government reportedly claimed the churches were built on land zoned for other uses, but Christian leaders said it is part of wider crack-down on Christianity. Read More

  • FIRST-PERSON: Start a conversation
    by Lee Clamp, posted Tuesday, February 21, 2017 (2 years ago)

    It's good to invite neighbors to church but, as Lee Clamp notes, it might be even better to become a friend, invite them to your home for dinner and start a conversation that can lead them to faith. Read More