Church

In a long-awaited report released Monday (Feb. 1), a task force commissioned to study the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission calls the convention’s public policy arm a “significant distraction from the Great Commission work of Southern Baptists.”

As Dwight McKissic looks at the Southern Baptist Convention these days as a Black pastor in Texas, he sees a parallel with a scene in the new film One Night in Miami. He talked about issues of racism and the SBC in the latest episode of the Word&Way podcast “Baptist Without An Adjective.”

A historic Episcopal church in Baltimore has committed to setting aside $100,000 to reparations, an initiative that will contribute to local racial justice causes. Memorial Episcopal Church also pledged to contribute an additional $400,000 for reparations and justice over five years.

Two national religious groups, one evangelical Christian, the other Orthodox Jewish, have teamed up to offer their sacred spaces for vaccine distribution, hoping to assist government officials and private companies in the effort to combat the ongoing pandemic.

On the first Sunday after he became a U.S. Senator, the Rev. Raphael Warnock described his election and the changing scene at the U.S. Capitol — from insurrection to inauguration — as forms of divine messaging.

As a student in college and seminary, then as a pastor in Texas, Dwight McKissic has been affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention for more than 45 years. Now he’s pondering whether he and his congregation should break away.

As the FBI and local police investigate an explosion at First Works Baptist Church in El Monte, California, which has been the center of protests for its anti-LGBTQ messages, both supporters and protesters of the church are denouncing the attack.

Doyle Sager, a Word&Way columnist and the lead pastor at First Baptist Church in Jefferson City, Missouri, passed away Friday (Jan. 22) after a battle with cancer. He was 69.

Jose Chicas, a native of El Salvador who has been living in church sanctuary for more than three years, moved out Friday (Jan. 22) after President Joe Biden signed an executive order temporarily halting the deportation of undocumented immigrants.

An accreditation body investigating recent events at Southwest Baptist University recently notified the school of an upcoming focused visit to further investigate recent governance changes. The visit by the Higher Commission also automatically changed SBU’s accreditation path.