Southern Baptist Convention: How did Saddleback get kicked out of the SBC? It’s complicated
The five congregations ousted last week were the first to be expelled from the Southern Baptist Convention on a national level for having women pastors since the ban on women pastors was instituted in 2000. BOB SMIETANA, of Religion News Service, reports…
Southern Californian church Saddleback ordains three women, leading to another Mother’s Day dust-up over women pastors
RNS Saddleback Church, one of the largest churches in the Southern Baptist Convention and home to influential pastor Rick Warren, ordained three women as staff pastors this past weekend, a move that critics say violates the denomination’s statement of faith. “Yesterday was a historic night for Saddleback Church in many ways!” the Southern California megachurch’s […]
Texas church planter John Powell killed in accident
RNS John Powell, a church planter and pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in New Caney, Texas, was killed in a highway accident Saturday, 18th July, reportedly as he was helping a driver who had stopped in the traffic lanes. According to television station KXII, a truck driving north on US Highway 75 was struck by a car. The […]
ESSAY: PROSPERITY GOSPEL’S FALSE PROMISES AREN’T ALWAYS ABOUT MONEY
US Baptist pastor and author ALAN CROSS, in an article first published on Religion News Service, looks at different aspects of the so-called ‘prosperity gospel’…
In the US, Southern Baptists see ‘judgment of God’ in #MeToo reckoning
RNS One day after the removal of a prominent seminary president following a series of contentious remarks about women, Southern Baptists have begun a public reckoning. The forced retirement of Paige Patterson, the president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, has broken a dam of anger, resentment and recrimination both for his […]
In the US, evangelical leaders proclaim 2017 the ‘Year of Good News’
Two dozen prominent evangelical pastors and denominational leaders are calling Christians to make 2017 the “Year of Good News.” That appeal came in a letter organised by Harvest Crusades founder Greg Laurie and published online on Tuesday. “In a time of bad news, distracting news, divisive news, disorderly news, and, sometimes, depressing news we – as […]