Baptist

As the coronavirus pandemic spread across the world, numerous governments responded by shutting down borders and ending international flights to prevent infected persons from arriving. For a Cuban Baptist pastor, this meant his quest to overcome international political squabbles left him and his wife stranded for days in Guyana by coronavirus travel closures.

As people are dying from coronavirus — as well as from other causes that would’ve still occurred without the pandemic — pastors and grieving families face new struggles in how to plan funerals in a time when people are supposed to practice social distancing.

People who lined up for meals recently at Cornerstone Baptist Church in blighted South Dallas had not been able to shower in a month and had no place to call their own while the city of Dallas is under a shelter-in-place order.

As countries around the world enact strict lockdowns to prevent the coronavirus pandemic from spreading, a Baptist peace activist in Zimbabwe argues such moves in his nation echo the lasting damage of Western colonialism.

Some church leaders are pushing for religious exemptions to state bans on mass gatherings. — and a couple pastors have even been arrested for defying bans. Amid this nationwide debate, Missouri Governor Mike Parson shifted course on religious exemptions after an April 2 press conference question by Word&Way.

CBF Executive Coordinator Paul Baxley released a statement today (April 2) announcing that the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Governing Board approved his recommendation to transition this year's CBF General Assembly to "a virtual experience."  

As coronavirus started growing in the world’s second-most populous country, India’s government responded March 24 with a nationwide lockdown to prevent the pandemic’s spread in the congested nation — a disruptive response that created even more ministry needs for Baptists there to address.

Nolan Porter is excited to become the next senior pastor at University Heights Baptist Church in Springfield, Missouri — and he’s also excited to eventually meet the congregants there. On Sunday (March 29), Porter preached in view of a call at UHBC, but with coronavirus forcing the church to move to virtual worship, he preached and chatted with people on their computer screens, and they voted electronically to call him.

As they comply with guidelines for social distancing and sheltering in place during the pandemic, Southern Baptists across the U.S. are finding creative ways to celebrate the Easter season.

As the first cases of coronavirus appear in the Gaza Strip, humanitarian groups are raising alarms about the potential catastrophe that could emerge in one of the poorest and most-densely populated places in the world. A Baptist pastor who used to minister in Gaza is among those offering concerns as the global pandemic reaches a place lacking proper infrastructure or medical facilities.