When newly installed South Carolina Baptist Convention president Marshall Blalock speaks of “Building Bridges,” his theme for the coming year, the reference is more than a metaphor. On Sunday evening, June 21, 2015 — four days after a white supremacist gunman murdered nine black Christians during a Wednesday night prayer meeting at Charleston’s Emanuel A.M.E. […]
South Carolina Baptist Convention messengers elected officers on Wednesday morning during the final session of their 197th annual meeting at Shandon Baptist Church in Columbia. Each officer was elected by acclamation and without opposition. Officers began their terms of service at the conclusion of the annual meeting. Marshall Blalock, pastor of Charleston First Baptist Church, […]
South Carolina Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers are poised to provide assistance to victims of Hurricane Irma — at home, in Florida and in other parts of the Southeast. Florida absorbed the brunt of Irma, although coastal areas of South Carolina saw near-record storm surges, and tropical storm-force winds downed trees across the state, knocking out […]
Danny Nicholson says every calling starts with a story. This is his. In the summer of 2016, he and his wife, Debra, were sitting on a bench outside their favorite beachside restaurant, waiting for a table. An African-American boy, 5 or 6 years old, zigzagged through the sand and darted across the weatherbeaten wooden deck, […]
Scott Smith absolutely loves going to work every day. When he unlocks the door to the Baptist Collegiate Ministries center at Lander University and crosses the 30 steps to his office, he whispers a prayer: “Lord, help me make a difference for You on this campus.” And then he goes to work, savoring every moment. […]
Making Christ Known on Campus When Ryan Williams graduated from high school and turned his sights toward college life at Winthrop University, he wasn’t pondering spiritual things. “I wasn’t really thinking about what God could do in my life,” he said, even though he was part of a church youth group where he’d been exposed […]
An early retirement incentive recently offered to 33 employees of the South Carolina Baptist Convention does not reflect immediate serious financial difficulties for the state denomination, even though Cooperative Program support from churches has tumbled over the past decade and shows few signs of rebounding. SCBC executive director-treasurer Gary Hollingsworth told The Courier there is […]
America’s pastors aren’t getting any younger. There are now more pastors over age 65 than under 40, a demographic shift over the past three generations that portends major challenges for the future church as baby boomer pastors age and die. According to a recent study by the Barna Group, the median age of Protestant pastors […]
At 100 Manly Street in Greenville, employees of The Baptist Courier pretty much can’t go anywhere without passing by Debbie Grooms’ office near the center of the building. She sees a lot of traffic during the day, and people stop at her door and lean in — to say hello … to chat about tomatoes, […]
Spend a few minutes across a table from Gene and Lisa Fant, and you’ll appreciate that humor is part of the equation in getting to know North Greenville University’s new first couple. Ask about his earliest childhood memories of Mississippi, and he’ll say, “Pine trees, rattlesnakes and tornadoes.” Ask her what first attracted her to […]