Executive Committee deems four churches not in friendly cooperation

The Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee deemed four churches not in friendly cooperation with the SBC Feb. 20, including a Greenville, S.C., congregation. Because of matters related to the handling of sex abuse allegations, the Executive Committee deemed not in friendly cooperation Grove Road Baptist Church in Greenville, S.C., and West Hendersonville Baptist Church in […]

Dislike of organized religion, maltreatment cited by many ‘Nones,’ Pew finds

More than half of religiously unaffiliated Americans, identified as ‘Nones,” say they don’t like organized religion or have been mistreated by religious people, Pew Research said Jan. 24. Specifically, 55 percent of Nones cited one of the two factors in explaining their reason for being nonreligious. Nearly half of respondents, 47 percent, said their dislike […]

Election year expected to impact legislatures as pro-life advocacy continues

Tony Beam, a policy consultant with the South Carolina Baptist Convention, had not been able to enter the room for the overflow on the South Carolina Legislature’s opening day as a subcommittee considered a bill to protect minors from gender transitions. The subcommittee was considering priorities for the session, which Beam expects to address gender […]

Peachtree Publishing, B&H among its clients, celebrates 1 billion Bibles 

When Jan Gibbs began proofreading Bibles 14 years ago for Peachtree Publishing Services, which celebrated in December the distribution of a billion copies of its works, she first had to learn to draw lines. In the Bible’s poetry books in particular, primary, secondary and tertiary vertical lines designate the indentation for each horizontal line of […]

Top findings from State of the Bible 2023

Online church attendees read the Bible more than onsite worshipers. Nonbelievers outpace Christians in valuing several pro-social Bible-based behaviors. And Black Americans are more spiritually vibrant than whites and Hispanics. The American Bible Society ranks those tidbits among the top findings from its 2023 State of the Bible, the 13th installment of the ABS’s intensive […]

SBC defies downward trend in donor trust in religious charities

Religious organizations including churches are no longer the most trusted charities among American adults, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) said in its 2023 Give.org Study. Rather, donors hold the highest trust for veterans’ groups and not-for-profit hospitals, pushing out religious organizations from the top spot for the first time since the study’s 2017 launch, BBB […]

141 baptisms at First Simpsonville after ‘overwhelming’ response

Multi-site Upstate Church in Simpsonville baptized 141 new believers Dec. 3 after a one-month evangelistic teaching series on church ordinances. For Senior Pastor Wayne Bray, it was clear the Holy Spirit was at work. “We have never seen anything like this in our church,” Bray told Baptist Press Dec. 4. “To think that 141 people […]