Barbara Denman

Originally posted June 12, 2013 HOUSTON (BP) — During a year when mass shootings and suicides have stunned the nation, a resolution on “Mental Health Concerns and the Heart of God” was overwhelmingly approved by messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention’s June 11-12 annual meeting in Houston. The resolution offered by the SBC Committee on […]

HOUSTON (BP) -- Messengers offered 12 motions June 11 during the opening day of the Southern Baptist Convention's June 11-12 annual meeting in Houston, the fewest number in recent years.

HOUSTON (BP) -- A roundtable discussion on balancing family and ministry encouraged pastors to put their family foremost by focusing on calendaring, intentionality and the spiritual condition of their children.

NEW ORLEANS (BP) -- David Uth called Southern Baptists to a fresh understanding of the depth of the love of Jesus Christ, urging them to "love loud and love much because of all that He has forgiven."

NEW ORLEANS (BP) — Stories of faith from behind prison bars, in lives of at-risk youth, through the work of missionaries and church planters nationally and internationally, as well as the dedication of missions-minded women across the nation, affirmed during the WMU Missions Celebration and Annual Meeting that “The Story Lives On.” The theme — […]

HAVANA, Cuba (BP) -- Walking through the Western Cuba Baptist Convention Seminary's corridors in Havana, Kevin Ezell heard how home missionaries Herbert Caudill and David Fite were escorted from those halls in 1965 and sent to Fidel Castro's notorious prison. The two, along with 53 Cuban pastors and lay leaders, were accused of being CIA operatives, yet their only crime was sharing the Gospel. "Their sacrifices were incredible," said Ezell, president of the North American Mission Board (formerly the Home Mission Board) as he reflected upon the missionaries' ordeal in the years following the Castro-led revolution. The two men remained in prison until their release in 1969. [QUOTE@left@130="The Communist Party's initial crackdown on the spread of Christianity drew the Cuban Baptists together as they sought to survive in a hostile regime.]Ezell's March 21-23 visit -- on the eve of Pope Benedict's official stopover on the Caribbean island nation -- marked the first time an HMB/NAMB president had visited Cuba since William Tanner traveled there in 1978, more than three decades ago. Ezell was in Cuba as a guest of the Florida Baptist Convention to attend the Western Cuba Baptist Convention's annual meeting at historic Calvary Baptist Church in downtown Havana. The building -- located around the block from the country's capital building -- originally was purchased through Annie Armstrong Mission Offering funds. Traveling with Ezell were John Sullivan, Florida's executive director-treasurer, who preached during the WCBC annual meeting; Carlos Ferrer, NAMB vice president and chief financial officer; and Florida convention staff members Craig Culbreth and Dennis Wilbanks. The Florida Baptist Convention has partnered with the Western Cuba Baptist Convention since 1996 and funds 51 percent of its annual operating budget, earmarking more than $1.8 million for the past 15 years to underwrite pastoral salary assistance, theological education and leader training. For Ezell and Ferrer, the trip was the opportunity to see the foundation established by Southern Baptists' Home Mission Board when it first sent missionaries to the country in 1886. The WCBC, organized in 1905, flourished under the HMB support. Through a letter-writing campaign by home missionary Annie Armstrong, the board purchased the Calvary church property in 1888 as well as the seminary and a retirement home for senior adults to advance Cuban Baptists' mission. Then in 1959 after the Castro-led revolution, WCBC churches were persecuted as Cuba was declared an atheistic country until 1992 when it was formally changed to "secularist."

CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. (BP) — Messengers to the 150th annual meeting of the Florida Baptist State Convention experienced the international flavor of South Florida Nov. 14-15 at Church by the Glades in Coral Springs. Caribbean singers, Hispanic choirs and prayers in various languages set the culturally diverse tone for the historic occasion as Bernie Cueto, […]

PHOENIX (BP)–The future of the Baptist association is on solid footing, a Southern Baptist leader said, because the organization of churches within regional groups is based on a biblical model. “The future of the association is bright,” Ken Hemphill said. “I believe it’s a biblical model,” therefore “survival is solved.” “The question is, will it […]

PHOENIX (BP)--Bryant Wright, pastor of the Atlanta-area Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, was re-elected June 14 to a second term as president of the Southern Baptist Convention, leading a slate of officers that included an African American as first vice president.

PHOENIX (BP)--Even as Southern Baptist Convention messengers considered a set of recommendations to increase the ethnic diversity of the convention's leadership, they faced the choice between an African American pastor from Louisiana and a Chinese-American layperson from Phoenix for first vice president of the SBC.