Amid a #MeToo Culture, Southern Baptists Mull Ways to Increase Women’s Roles

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Amid a #MeToo Culture, Southern Baptists Mull Ways to Increase Women’s Roles


Amid a #MeToo Culture, Southern Baptists Mull Ways to Increase Women’s Roles


Over scones and chocolates, hundreds of Southern Baptist women gathered for tea in a convention center ballroom Monday (June 11) on the eve of their denomination’s annual meeting.


They were attending “[email protected]” a tradition of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, the school until recently led by Paige Patterson, the revered Southern Baptist leader who was terminated in May after reports he mishandled student rape allegations and made comments demeaning to women.


Patterson announced last week that he would not attend the annual meeting so as not “to detract in any way from the important business of our convention.” But at “[email protected]” Patterson’s wife, Dorothy, was seated at one of the front reserved tables, not commenting much on the recent scandal.

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JD Greear Lists 6 Priorities He’ll Focus on as SBC President

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JD Greear Lists 6 Priorities He’ll Focus on as SBC President

(Photo: The Christian Post)Newly elected Southern Baptist Convention President Pastor J.D.Greear, lead pastor of Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, speaks at a news conference at the Kay Bailey Convention Center in Dallas, Texas, on June 13, 2018.

DALLAS — Pastor J.D. Greear, the Southern Baptist Convention’s newly elected president, says God placed six priorities on his heart that he’ll focus on over the next two years as leader of the largest Protestant denomination in the United States.

On Tuesday, Greear, lead pastor of Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, won the election against Ken Hemphill, an administrator at North Greenville University and a former Southern Baptist Convention seminary president, by a vote of 69 percent to 31 percent.

Speaking of Hemphill, Greear described him as a “godly man.”

“He is a guy that for as long has I’ve known him has invested in younger leaders, and I think he would’ve been a fine leader of the SBC, but God’s decision and the decision of the messengers, this is where we sit. And we’ll see what the future brings.”

Of the 9,467 messengers at the convention, 7,884 cast ballots in the presidential election. Hemphill got 2,459 votes to Greear’s 5,410 votes.

“From the very beginning of this there were six things…

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Tearfund heralds ‘new chapter’ with USA expansion

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Tearfund heralds ‘new chapter’ with USA expansion

The international development and relief charity revealed on Wednesday that its UK chairman Clive Mather shall become the new chairman of Tearfund USA – a new part of the Tearfund “family”.

Sonia Patterson (pictured above), who takes on the role of chief executive officer, said: “I am excited to start this new chapter with Tearfund USA, building on the organisation’s global legacy of helping the most marginalised and vulnerable.

 

“I’m looking forward to the process of setting up the organisation in the US, meeting supporters and partners and following Jesus where the need is greatest.”

Sonia Patterson joins the organisation with 20 years’ experience developing business, non-governmental and community ties across the Americas, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Clive Mather (pictured below) commented: “Tearfund USA will be asking Christians to go deeper in thinking about how they live.

Tearfund

 

“A whole life response to poverty involves praying, giving, acting, volunteering and making lifestyle changes.

“Sometimes it will involve sacrifice and inconvenience, but it will be liberating and empowering in a way that defies worldly expectations.”

Stay up to date with the latest news stories from a Christian perspective. Sign up to our daily newsletter and receive more stories like this straight to your inbox every morning.

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One Year Later, Britain Remembers 72 Killed in Fire and Faith Groups’ Response

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One Year Later, Britain Remembers 72 Killed in Fire and Faith Groups’ Response


One Year Later, Britain Remembers 72 Killed in Fire and Faith Groups’ Response


The Rev. Alan Everett vividly remembers the early morning hours of June 14, 2017. Flames were engulfing the 24-story apartment building near his church, St. Clement’s in Notting Dale, and he did what came naturally: invite in the weary, fearful and displaced.


“Opening the doors and switching on the lights was the most important thing I’ve done in my ministry,” Everett recalled.


From 3 a.m. onward, neighbors came for hot drinks, food and clothing, all distributed by a team of volunteers who had sprung into action. In the faces of those who had lost homes, possessions or loved ones, Everett saw something rising to the surface.


“On the night of the fire, something very deep was triggered in people,” Everett said. “They had a strong belief that you can find sanctuary in a sacred space. And they needed that sanctuary.”


June 14 marks the one-year anniversary since the fire at the Grenfell Tower in the Kensington neighborhood of West London. The fire burned for 24 hours and took the lives of 72 residents, with more than 200 others left homeless.


Now, Londoners are remembering the tragedy with a sense for what has changed over the past year. A degree of shame stems from growing awareness of causes that suggest the fire might have been preventable. But Grenfell has also produced an alternative narrative about Britain, where there is concern about…

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Hospitals with Catholic ethos expected to carry out abortions

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Hospitals with Catholic ethos expected to carry out abortions

Leo Varadkar said while individual doctors, nurses or midwives could opt out of performing procedures on conscience grounds, entire institutions will not have that option.

Mr Varadkar was addressing concerns about surgical abortions raised in the Dail by Solidarity-People Before Profit TD Mick Barry.

 

The government is drafting legislation that will allow for any woman to request an abortion up to 12 weeks, subject to a cooling off period, and will allow abortion in extreme cases between 12 and 24 weeks.

It comes after citizens last month voted two-to-one in a historic referendum to repeal the state’s constitutional ban on abortions.

The Taoiseach said the legislation would follow the model of the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013, which allowed for terminations in extreme medical circumstances, and allow individual medics to opt out.

“It will not, however, be possible for publicly funded hospitals, no matter who their patron or owner is, to opt of providing these necessary services which will be legal in this state once this legislation is passed by the Dail and Seanad,” he added.

“I’m happy to give you that assurance.”

Mr Varadkar added: “That legislation will allow individuals to opt out based on their consciences or their religious convictions but will not allow institutions to do so.

“So just as is the case now in the legislation for the Protection of…

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Why Church Leaders Should Know What’s Being Taught in Small Groups

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Why Church Leaders Should Know What’s Being Taught in Small Groups

  1. Alignment with leadership is vital.
  2. Alignment with the church’s vision is critical.
  3. Most groups follow a clear calendar.
  4. Deviant doctrine can develop.
  5. Some groups and leaders have a separate agenda.

Some highlights from today’s Rainer Report:

  • Too many pastors don’t have a clue what is being taught in small groups.
  • If what is being taught in small groups contradicts what’s being taught from the pulpit, it will cause conflict in the church.
  • When a pastor doesn’t know what’s being taught in groups, deviant doctrine can develop in the church.
  • Groups can be a powerful alignment force in the church.

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Click here to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Thom Rainer.

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Couple that lost 9 family members in Texas church shooting sues US government

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Couple that lost 9 family members in Texas church shooting sues US government

Joe and Claryce Holcombe, who lost their son, and eight extended family members have accused the government of having “institutional failures ” that allowed the shooter to obtain the gun he used in the shooting.

Devin Patrick Kelley, 26, opened fire inside First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs Church in November 2017, killing 26 people and wounding about 20 others in what the Texas governor called the deadliest mass shooting in the state’s history.

 

Soon after the shooting, the US Air Force admitted that it failed to report that Kelley was convicted of sexual assault to law enforcement database. If it would have done so, Kelley would not have been able to legally buy a gun.

The Holcombes claimed in the lawsuit that the massacre could have been avoided if there weren’t “institutional failures and the negligent or wrongful acts or omissions of one or more employees of the United States government”.

The lawsuit adds: “As a result of the criminal conviction, the Defendant USA was required to, amongst other things, enter this information into various federal computer databases advising that Airman Kelley had been convicted of crimes that prevented him from purchasing, owning and/or possessing firearms.

“But Airman Kelley was able to purchase an assault-style rifle as a direct result of the US Air Force’s admitted, systemic and long-standing failure to comply with…

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Transgender man’s baby could be first person without legal mother

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Transgender man’s baby could be first person without legal mother

My father was born on this day in 1924, one day after George H. W. Bush. While my father died in 1979, Mr. Bush is now the first US president to reach ninety-four years of age.

I turned sixty earlier this year. When my father and Mr. Bush were my age, it’s hard to imagine that they could have imagined a story like this one:

A transgender man recently gave birth to a baby in the UK. British law states that those who give birth to children can only be noted as mothers on official documents. The parent has complained of discrimination. As a result, the baby could become the first person born in England and Wales not to have a legal mother.

Two verses we need today

The twenty-first century has brought remarkable advances for advancing the Great Commission. Christians can use digital technology to reach people previously inaccessible to our mission. We can use social media to win the lost and technology to disciple believers.

But this generation is also facing an unprecedented moral crisis.

Never before in American history has conventional wisdom been so unbiblical. From acceptance of homosexual behavior and marriage to advocacy for abortion and euthanasia to consumptionist materialism that marginalizes the soul, you and I are living in an age that desperately needs the very light it seeks to extinguish.

In this challenging context, two verses have become a great source of encouragement to me.

Writing to the Colossians, the smallest church Paul ever addressed, the apostle sought to offer support for their witness to their pagan culture. He testified, “Him [Jesus] we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me” (Colossians 1:28-29).

Let’s explore Paul’s testimony so we can make it ours.

“Him we proclaim”

Scott Jurek recently ran the Appalachian Trail. All of it, the entire 2,189-mile…

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Man charged over nuns' killings will plead guilty to save him from death penalty

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Man charged over nuns' killings will plead guilty to save him from death penalty

A man charged with killing two nuns will plead guilty as part of an agreement removing the possibility of the death penalty, a Mississippi prosecutor has said.

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Researchers issue e-fit of God

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Researchers issue e-fit of God

Researchers at the University of North Carolina found believers in the United States generally consider God to be young, Caucasian and loving.

In their study, they reported perceptions vary according to an individual’s own political views and physical appearance.

 

They were also shown to see God as similar to them in terms of attractiveness, age and – to a lesser extent – race.

The authors concluded the liberals see God as relatively more feminine, more African American and more loving than conservatives.

In contrast, conservatives were more like to consider the author of creation as older, more intelligent and more powerful.

Published in the PLOS ONE journal, they said: “These differences are consistent with past research showing that people’s views of God are shaped by their group-based motivations and cognitive biases.

PLOS ONE journal/University of North Carolina/Joshua Conrad Jackson, Neil Hester and Kurt Gray

 

“Our results also speak to the broad scope of religious differences: even people of the same nationality and the same faith appear to think differently about God’s appearance.”

The study, entitled ‘The Faces of God in America’, which conducted by Joshua Conrad Jackson, Neil Hester and Kurt Gray. Some 511 American Christians took part – 330 men and 181 women.

The authors also said: “As faces communicate both physical and psychological information, this measure also provides insight into how believers…

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