Baptist Press Archive

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

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  • 'Weakened witness' stayed on mission to the very end
    by Brian Koonce/Missouri Pathway, posted Wednesday, August 24, 2016 (8 years ago)

    Submitted photo
    CHIFUNGA, Malawi (BP) -- Paul Koonce was weak and exhausted. Barely able to stand, it took two assistants to get him from the truck and into Avant Baptist Church at Chifunga in Malawi, Africa. Though unable to get in and out of the rickety chair on his own, he still sat up straighter and grew stronger as he began to preach to the people gathering on the dirt floor.

    Through Koonce's favorite Chichewa interpreter, he began to tell the story of Job.

    As the director of missions for Washington-Osage Baptist Association based in Bartlesville, Okla., Koonce had led 20 trips to the tiny eastern Africa nation. Along with pastors and students in the association, he helped plant 85 Baptist churches there, and saw thousands come to faith Christ. ... Read More

  • Boys become men, then seniors in VBS
    by Connie Davis Bushey/Baptist and Reflector, posted Wednesday, August 24, 2016 (8 years ago)

    Submitted photo
    HARRIMAN, Tenn. (BP) -- Sanny Bowman, Jack Bowman and Don Alford participated in the first Vacation Bible School of Caney Ford Baptist Church in 1936.

    Eighty years later, they are still attending VBS at the church in Harriman, Tenn.

    In fact, they have only missed a few years of VBS among them, mainly because of military service. Sanny has attended 78 years, Jack has attended 77 years, and Don 78 years. Read More

  • Chaplains relay 'glimpses of hope' amid flood crisis
    by Marilyn Stewart, posted Wednesday, August 24, 2016 (8 years ago)

    Photo by Marilyn Stewart
    BATON ROUGE, La. (BP) -- The catastrophic flooding in south Louisiana is quite different for Southern Baptist chaplains in the National Guard than anything they have seen before and, at the same time, all too familiar.

    Brigade Chaplain Page Brooks, a New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary faculty member serving with Louisiana's 256th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, said even though record rainfall and flooding didn't come from a named storm, the devastation is much the same. Read More

  • ERLC's Duke top candidate for Montana exec
    by Diana Chandler, posted Wednesday, August 24, 2016 (8 years ago)

    BILLINGS, Mont. (BP) -- Religious liberty advocate Barrett Duke has emerged as the top candidate for executive directorship of the Montana Southern Baptist Convention.

    Bruce Speer, heading the MTSBC eight-member search team for the post, said Duke will receive the team's unanimous recommendation for the executive directorship at the group's annual meeting this fall. Read More

  • Sexual identity report lauded as pastor resource
    by David Roach, posted Wednesday, August 24, 2016 (8 years ago)

    NASHVILLE (BP) -- A report by two Johns Hopkins psychiatry scholars debunking myths about homosexuality and transgenderism has been cited by a pastor who specializes in mental health care issues as a valuable aid for ministry to those struggling with sexual identity. Read More

  • FIRST-PERSON: Anybody's guess
    by Randy L. Bennett , posted Wednesday, August 24, 2016 (8 years ago)

    Randy Bennett, president of the California Southern Baptist Convention, warns about "the power of the guess" and the harm it can cause when people, without checking, believe and spread untrue information. "Let's be careful," he writes, "that we don't share our guesses as truth." Read More