Baptist Press Archive

Friday, May 08, 2020

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  • IMB, NAMB celebrate 175 years of helping Southern Baptists pursue the Great Commission
    by Tobin Perry, posted Friday, May 08, 2020 (2 years ago)

    AUGUSTA, Ga. (BP) -- When 327 delegates met at First Baptist Church in Augusta, Ga., on May 8, 1845, they did more than start a new convention of Baptist churches in the South.

    They began a missionary movement that would in time start new Gospel-proclaiming churches throughout North America and the world. On Friday, Southern Baptists celebrate the 175th anniversary of the founding of what became the North American Mission Board and the International Mission Board -- and the corresponding Gospel movement they launched. Read More

  • Leis, drive-through prayer, gift e-cards mark Mother's Day during COVID-19
    by Diana Chandler, posted Friday, May 08, 2020 (2 years ago)

    Submitted photo
    HONOLULU (BP) -- In Hawaii, a welcoming sentiment of aloha or love is expressed with ornamental leis, the garlands often liberally layered to extend above the eyes.

    University Avenue Baptist Church in Honolulu will honor mothers Saturday (May 9) with a drive-through distribution of floral leis in the church parking lot, accompanied by prayers, in advance of an online Mother's Day service Sunday morning. Each mother will be given two leis -- one to keep and another to give to a friend. Read More

  • ERLC urges support for nonprofits, vulnerable
    by Tom Strode, posted Friday, May 08, 2020 (2 years ago)

    iStock
    WASHINGTON (BP) -- The Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission has called on Congress to support nonprofit organizations and particular categories of vulnerable Americans in the next coronavirus (COVID-19) relief package.

    ERLC President Russell Moore wrote congressional leaders Thursday (May 7) to ask them to include provisions such as a Universal Charitable Deduction (UCD) in what is known as the Phase 4 legislation under consideration in response to the economic loss brought on by the pandemic. The ERLC has been championing the UCD since March, but Congress did not include it in a previous package. Read More

  • Fellowship Church 'blown away' by response to on-site worship

    by George Schroeder, posted Friday, May 08, 2020 (2 years ago)

    Submitted photo
    GRAPEVINE, Texas (BP) -- They wore masks. They maintained plenty of distance. They worshiped. They ... cried.

    Despite planning for weeks, leaders of Fellowship Church weren't quite sure what to expect when they resumed in-person worship services last weekend (May 2-3). Ed Young Jr., senior pastor of the multisite church, knew people wanted to get back to church after weeks isolated because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The response, he said, "blew me away." Read More

  • Rio girl hungers for corporate worship
    by Jill Thompson, posted Friday, May 08, 2020 (2 years ago)

    IMB photo
    RIO DE JANEIRO (BP) -- While many churches have services online during the time of quarantine, many families in 12-year-old Maria Isabel's neighborhood don't have access to the internet. Elidiomar and Arianne, church planters in Rio de Janeiro, continue to go to their church plant each Sunday. One Sunday, they thought they would just go out and put together a snack for the children, but Maria Isabel insisted that food isn't enough. Read More

  • Former Southern Baptist pastor Darrin Patrick, 49, dies unexpectedly
    by Jonathan Howe, posted Friday, May 08, 2020 (2 years ago)

    SEBTS Photo
    ST. LOUIS (BP) -- Prominent pastor and former Southern Baptist church planter Darrin Patrick died Thursday night (May 7) after an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

    Patrick, 49, was on staff as teaching pastor at Seacoast Church in the Carolinas. He also routinely provided pulpit supply at Southern Baptist churches across the country and was scheduled to preach May 17 at Long Hollow Baptist Church in Hendersonville, Tenn. Read More

  • Area codes prompt churches' prayers
    by Tess Schoonhoven, posted Friday, May 08, 2020 (2 years ago)

    Screen capture from Facebook
    DETROIT (BP) -- What Travis Whitaker started as a daily three-minute prayer specifically for Detroit, a city heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, has become a prayer movement.

    Whitaker, pastor of Mile City Church in Plymouth, Mich., named the initiative Mission 3:13, which is based on Detroit's area code -- 313. He wanted to use the area code of the most heavily impacted city in the state and set that time of day aside to pray for spiritual and physical healing in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis. So those praying specifically for Detroit pray each day at 3:13 p.m. Read More

  • Greenway charges Southwestern graduates in video address
    by Alex Sibley, posted Friday, May 08, 2020 (2 years ago)

    SWBTS screen capture
    FORT WORTH, Texas (BP) -- With COVID-19 preventing The Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Scarborough College from having an in-person commencement ceremony, the school's administration and faculty still congratulated and celebrated 336 bachelor's, master's and doctoral students graduating in the spring 2020 semester, including the largest-ever graduating class from Scarborough College. Read More