Baptist

FORT WORTH, Texas (BP) -- Escalating health care costs, increased expenses for utilities and other higher education costs have prompted personnel cuts at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.

SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Texas (RNS) — The funerals were yet to be held.

But one thing was already clear in this tiny Texas town of 600 a couple days after one of the worst mass shootings at an American church: First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs will be razed.

The Baptist Center for Ethics' board of directors unanimously approved R. Mitch Randall as BCE's new executive director.

Randall will begin his tenure Jan. 1, 2018, becoming only the second executive director in the organization's 26-year history. He follows the tenure of BCE's founder, Robert Parham, who died in March 2017.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (BP) -- Amid a grand celebration of Jason Allen's fifth anniversary as Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary's president, trustees, friends and the seminary community gathered Oct. 16 to mark the occasion and praise God for Allen's accomplishments during that tenure.

The 183rd Missouri Baptist Convention annual meeting takes place October 23-25 at the Raytown campus of Connection Point Church.

The Missouri Baptist Foundation have announced the addition of Tim Huddleston as its new Regional Vice President.

John Hardin retired on Sept. 30 as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of the Missouri Baptist Foundation. Hardin has served the Foundation since 1988 following his service as associate director of the Business Services division of the Executive Board of the Missouri Baptist Convention.

On September 27, Judge Karl DeMarce issued a ruling in favor of the Missouri Baptist Convention in the MBC’s 15-year litigation. The latest ruling overturns charter changes by MBU and TBH, which would return trustee selection to the MBC. The judge, however, stayed his own order to allow an expected appeals process to further consider his ruling.

In 2001, the first draft of the human genome was published in the journal Nature. The research effort sought to identify all the genes in human DNA and to determine the possible sequences of the chemical bases that make up human DNA. 

The completion of the Human Genome Project raised a significant question in Christian circles: Who are Adam and Eve in light of the conclusions?

The Missouri Baptist Foundation and the Baptist Foundation of South Carolina have named new leaders. Neil Franks, age 46, served as the lead pastor of First Baptist Church of Branson, Mo. Nathan McCarthy has been an investment manager and since 2010 has served the Baptist Foundation of Alabama as senior investment officer.