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Stories tagged with: small churches

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  • Small church, bivocational group offers free education
    by Diana Chandler, posted Monday, August 27, 2018 (6 years ago)

    Submitted photo.
    NASHVILLE (BP) -- As Joe Wright Jr. and his wife Pennie worshiped with a Southern Baptist congregation of 12 members in the Tennessee Delta just a few weeks ago, the pastor's participation was noticeable.

    "We sat there and watched the pastor open his hymnbook and without a piano, he led those 12 people in about three songs," said Wright, in his fourth month as executive director of the Bivocational & Small Church Leadership Network (BSCLN). '"When he was done, he shut the hymnbook, and he said let's pray. And he prayed, and he said, 'It's time for the preaching.' And he opened the Bible, ... Read More

  • FIRST-PERSON: A normal Baptist church
    by Randy C. Davis, posted Wednesday, April 25, 2018 (6 years ago)

    Randy Davis tells of visiting a "normal" Baptist church in a "normal" rural community led by a "normal" bivocational pastor. But churches like First Baptist Howell are "pretty exceptional in my book," Davis writes. Read More

  • FIRST-PERSON: Small but healthy
    by Jeff Iorg, posted Monday, December 05, 2016 (7 years ago)

    Seminary president Jeff Iorg visits a church of 60 in worship -- one that's "neither stagnant nor dying; it's just small -- and very healthy." Without such churches, he notes, "millions of Americans wouldn't know the joy of Christian fellowship and service." Read More

  • FIRST-PERSON: The urban/rural divide
    by Barry E. Fields, posted Friday, November 11, 2016 (7 years ago)

    Amid the urban/rural divide as seen in the Nov. 8 election, there's a place for fruitful, far-reaching ministry in country or county seat churches, Barry Fields writes. Of the roughly 50,000 churches and missions in the Southern Baptist Convention, the vast majority are in rural areas, he notes. Read More

  • FIRST-PERSON: Small is the 'new big'
    by Chuck Kelley, posted Wednesday, February 04, 2015 (9 years ago)

    NEW ORLEANS (BP) -- Chuck Kelley, president of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, notes that 90 percent of Southern Baptists' 46,000-plus churches have less than 250 people in Sunday worship. Southern Baptists' future, Kelley writes, "will be determined by how well we nurture our small churches and enhance their fruitfulness." Read More

  • Pastor finds 'strength in numbers' through CP
    by Karen L. Willoughby, posted Tuesday, February 03, 2015 (9 years ago)

    KENOSHA, Wisc. (BP) –- It was all there in the church constitution, Lenard Tavernelli realized when he became pastor of Fellowship Baptist Church in Kenosha, Wisc., in October, 2013.

    He didn't have to start something new, but just lead the congregation to regain and fulfill its purpose and mission. Read More

  • Small, rural church gives 30% through CP
    by Karen L. Willoughby, posted Monday, January 05, 2015 (9 years ago)

    ALMYRA, Ark. (BP) -- Some might say trusting God comes easily for the farming families who make up the majority of the members of Almyra First Baptist Church.

    They watch rice emerge from flooded fields, soybeans grow in carefully weeded rows, and cotton blossoms nearby. They know from this that God gives the increase in His time, when they're obedient to do His work, says Doug Hibbard, who has served as pastor of First Baptist in Almyra, Ark., the past four years. Read More

  • 'Hard to argue with' CP success, pastor says
    by Karen L. Willoughby, posted Wednesday, December 03, 2014 (9 years ago)

    PLEASANT GROVE, Utah (BP) -- Maxine Warren takes home the coffee left over from fellowships at First Baptist Church in Pleasant Grove, Utah, not wanting to see it thrown out.

    She and her husband Louis, in their early 80s, were children during America's Great Depression. Frugality is so ingrained they don't even think about it. Read More