Joni B. Hannigan

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (BP) — The Jacksonville, Fla., city council Wednesday (Aug. 15) narrowly rejected altering its human rights ordinance to add sexual orientation to the list of those protected from discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodation. The vote followed three months of testimony and debate about whether discrimination exists in Jacksonville against gays and […]

NEW ORLEANS (BP) — Three Southern Baptist leaders were recognized by the Israel Ministry of Tourism with a Faithful Ambassador Award June 18 for their support of Christian tourism. Frank Page, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee, was honored at a “Celebrate Israel” breakfast, along with Jack Graham, senior pastor of the Dallas-area […]

    Sensitive to the need for greater diversity in leadership and increased participation of ethnics, the Southern Baptist Convention voted overwhelmingly June 14 to ask for greater accountability regarding their involvement in SBC life. During a news conference after the vote, Paul Kim, pastor emeritus of Antioch Baptist Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said: "I […]

PHOENIX (BP)–Sensitive to the need for greater diversity in leadership and increased participation of ethnics, the Southern Baptist Convention voted overwhelmingly June 14 to ask for greater accountability regarding their involvement in SBC life. During a news conference after the vote, Paul Kim, pastor emeritus of Antioch Baptist Church in Cambridge, Mass., said: “I want […]

PHOENIX (BP)--Rosanna Rivas smiled broadly, gesturing for a family to join her in the shade at a Crossover block party at Iglesia Bautista el Faro in Phoenix.

This 1996 Baptist Press story is reprinted here in light of the recommendations to be considered at the 2011 SBC annual meeting stemming from an extensive ethnic participation study conducted by the SBC Executive Committee. This article was published on June 10, 1996, prior to the SBC's annual meeting that year ...

ECLECTIC, Ala. (BP)--The half-mile-wide deadly tornado which tore through Elmore County, Ala., late April 27 ripped down power lines, shredded trees and tossed a trailer park on a path from Wetumpka to Kowaliga before pushing through the front doors of tiny 115-year-old Mount Hebron East Baptist Church in Eclectic. The twister exploded the historic building and a 2-year-old adjacent fellowship and educational building onto the church's cemetery, its powerful winds knocking flat the heavy headstones and spewing the churned up contents nearly two miles into the surrounding woods. Word spread quickly. Pastor Bob Williamson said a member who lives close to the church site called and told him the church was "gone." "What do you mean gone?" he asked. She told him it had taken a direct hit and "nothing was left except a pile of rubble and the slab of the fellowship hall." At the site the next day, Williamson reflected on his first reaction to the destruction. "I was just amazed to see the damage here, just obliterated, the church," Williamson said. Some of the church members were weeping, he said, and wondering what to do. "Well, we're going to do that last thing the Lord told us to do and that's to be the people of God," Williamson said he told them. The pastor cancelled his plans to preach at a revival and determined that the church would meet at the site for worship May 1. Williamson has been the church's pastor for about six months. He and his wife Vicky retired from the International Mission Board after serving nearly 22 years in South Africa.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (BP)--Trudging through the streets of Tuscaloosa, Ala., following the April 27 killer tornado, Billy Gray, interim director of missions for the Tuscaloosa County Baptist Association, expressed shock at the overwhelming destruction that made thousands homeless, caused a massive power outage and left at least 38 people confirmed dead. With estimated wind speeds of up to 200 mph, the EF4 tornado that left a mile-wide debris field hit densely populated neighborhoods of Tuscaloosa, snaking around the University of Alabama, the DCH Regional Medical Center and a high school. Entire communities were leveled, and at least half a dozen of the association's 80-plus churches were heavily damaged. People walked behind the police barricades, looking at the piles of timber that used to be the walls of someone's living room. They stared at trees flashing their undersides, flipping up asphalt. They watched as workers stacked huge power poles and waited for more to arrive. They walked in the blazing hot sun and accepted a cool bottle of water. Their eyes lit up momentarily. "We talked to some of these people. They are OK. They seem to be OK," Gray said. "They can laugh, but I know they are hurting." In Crescent Ridge, an area turned nearly to mulch by the twister, Gray said he spoke with a recently widowed woman who lives close to all of her family. And all of their homes had just been destroyed. "They are OK as far as handling things, but in looking at the devastation, the lady said, 'Every once in a while I just have to cry, but I don't make a practice of it,'" Gray said. "I think that's a good way to put it." Gray said he was looking forward to the arrival of Alabama Baptist disaster relief chaplains who are trained in counseling those who are faced with loss and grief. He was grateful for the volunteer team already serving alongside the American Red Cross. "I am extremely proud of our people," Gray said. "I have been bombarded with calls from people wanting to help. It's a wonderful thing to see."

DALLAS (BP)–Without Cooperative Program support, Southern Baptists would not have the International Mission Board, the largest evangelical mission entity in existence, Tom Elliff, the IMB’s new president, told the Florida Baptist Witness after his unanimous election by trustees March 16. “We wouldn’t have our 5,000 boots on the ground,” Elliff said of the Cooperative Program, […]

LEESBURG, Fla. (BP)–Florida’s Imagine If Great Commission Resurgence Task Force delivered a one-hour report to the State Board of Missions Sept. 24, explaining its recommendations that will be considered by the Florida Baptist State Convention in November. After eight months, the 30-member task force is seeking to advance “in a very aggressive fashion” a state […]