Church

In this edition of A Public Witness we’ll consider the church politics going on in the Tar Heel state, detail how one Baptist-preacher-turned-candidate is taking the Lord’s name in vain, and analyze why campaigns are corrupting congregational life.

Two Baptist preachers known for their claims that the nation’s largest Protestant denomination is becoming too liberal will be nominated for top roles in the Southern Baptist Convention. 

A contractor filed a mechanic’s lien on March 10 against the Executive Board of the Missouri Baptist Convention for more than $319,000 in unpaid construction bills for work to the Baptist Student Union near Missouri State University in Springfield.

A small, conservative Christian college in Pennsylvania has become the latest battleground in the evangelical “woke war.” Grove City College is nestled in the quiet borough of Grove City an hour north of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

On Thursday, faculty, staff, and students at Hannibal-LaGrange University, a Baptist school in Hannibal, Missouri, gathered together to pray for a miracle amid financial woes threatening the school’s existence.

One of the nation’s largest Black Protestant denominations has stopped making payments to retired ministers on its pension plan, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.

Hannibal-LaGrange University is holding a 10-hour “time of prayer, fasting, petition, and repentance” on Thursday (March 10). But the Missouri Baptist Convention with which the school is affiliated, put out different reasons for the event — and they raise questions about the financial state of HLGU.

Since 1997, 13 men have served as president of the Southern Baptist Convention. But during that time, only one person has held another important position for the nation’s largest Protestant denomination: Recording Secretary John Yeats. However, that will change in June.

The United Methodist Church has delayed its General Conference meeting for a third time due to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. In response, some conservative United Methodists have announced they will preemptively leave the denomination rather than wait for the long anticipated meeting.

Ed Litton, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, announced Tuesday he will break with tradition and not seek a second term in the top convention role.