News Articles by Samuel Smith

FORT WORTH, Texas (BP)--The Tarrant Baptist Association's executive board voted unanimously Jan. 24 to offer to sell a building that has been a point of contention ...

FORT WORTH, Texas (BP)–Messengers to the 2008 Baptist General Convention of Texas, meeting Nov. 10-11 at the Fort Worth Convention Center, decided a proposal to change the group’s name to “Texas Baptist Convention” needs further study before being accepted. Messengers also adopted a down-sized $45.7 million budget for 2009, elected David Lowrie, pastor of First […]

COLLEYVILLE, Texas (BP)--The seventh annual Mission Colleyville resulted in 285 decisions for Christ and 40 baptisms on the spot as 3,722 people from more than 900 families registered for free toys and heard a presentation of the Gospel.       "It was a more effective meeting this year than in years past, in my opinion," Freddie Gage, cofounder of the event and staff evangelist at First Baptist Church in Colleyville, Texas, said. "The Holy Spirit of God came down and touched many people through the preaching of Homer Martinez," a Hispanic evangelist based in Dallas.       Gage's vision for Mission Colleyville dates back seven years ago when he was witnessing door-to-door in a low-income community near the church. He worked with Ron Cogburn, who was chairman of the deacons at the time, to start a Christmastime ministry to the church's neighbors who are primarily Hispanic.       "What we did is we had a big Christmas dinner -- turkey, dressing, the whole nine yards," Cogburn said of the first event in 2001. "We had over 700 volunteers from our church. We had a toy store that we set up that was subsequent to that event. We also gave out sacks of groceries and turkeys.       "Over the years, it has evolved now to something that probably to me is a little more effective just by the sheer numbers we have coming," Cogburn said.

FORT WORTH, Texas (BP)–“It’s a good day to be a Methodist,” joked one member of Broadway Baptist Church who asked not to be identified. “They just move ’em around whenever they need to.” On this chilly March morning, several hundred members did what they do every Sunday at the Fort Worth, Texas, church. The difference […]

FORT WORTH, Texas (BP)–Members of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth overwhelmingly voted 499-237 to retain senior pastor Brett Younger in a closed business meeting March 9. “Regardless of the outcome, we know that people will be hurting and will need reconciliation after this,” deacon board chair Kathy Madeja said before the vote, which was […]

ARLINGTON, Texas (BP)--The theological and political debate within the Southern Baptist Convention about private prayer languages came to the fore April 27-29 at the "Baptist Conference on the Holy Spirit" at Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--The influx of pornography and strip bars into American society can be stopped, a community values activist told a conference for state convention workers at the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission in Nashville, Tenn.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--Christians must draw clear lines in the stem cell research debate, an expert told state convention staffers at a conference sponsored by the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission in Nashville, Tenn.

DALLAS (BP)--Three Rio Grande Valley pastors whose alleged misappropriations of Baptist General Convention of Texas funds once were the subject of an FBI investigation may face further legal scrutiny in the near future, according to a BGCT news release Nov. 29.

DALLAS (BP)--The church-starting fund scandal that cost the Baptist General Convention of Texas $1.3 million over six years was anything but a new story to Emilio Azael de la Garza.