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Saturday, November 21, 2009
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Book says nation watching this year's Lottie Moon offering

Book says nation watching this year's Lottie Moon offering

A Christian organization that tracks giving to religious groups says other denominations will be watching this year's Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, which funds overseas missionaries of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Church opens doors to victims of workplace violence

Church opens doors to victims of workplace violence

A Cooperative Baptist Fellowship church opened its doors to more than 50 employees of an engineering firm in downtown Orlando, Fla., rocked by workplace violence Nov. 6.

Mural enriches children’s ministry

Mural enriches children’s ministry

On a hot South Texas summer morning, parents and children stream into the Children’s Center at San Antonio’s Trinity Baptist Church for Sunday School. Visitors are greeted warmly, and children are directed to their classrooms: downstairs for the youngest, upstairs for older children.

 
Opinion: Does the SBC respect local-church autonomy or not?
(ABP) -- During the November 11, 2009, business session of the Georgia Baptist Convention, messengers to the Southern Baptist-affiliated state body dismissed the First Baptist Church of Decatur, Ga., from fellowship for the church's calling of Julie Pennington-Russell as senior pastor in 2007. The SBC will not establish a database to track ministerial child abusers out of fear of "violating local church autonomy," but when it comes to a church calling a woman to preach the gospel, church autonomy is slain at the feet of conventional conformity.
 
Wiley Drake lifts call for 'imprecatory prayer' against President Obama
BUENA PARK, Calif. (ABP) -- A former Southern Baptist Convention officer who made headlines in June when he said on national radio that he was praying for Barack Obama to die now says he wants to see the president live long enough to stand trial for treason.
 
Group says proposed Okla. Christian prison likely unconstitutional
Wakita, Okla., where most of the 1996 blockbuster "Twister" starring Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton was filmed, could be home to the nation's first prison staffed entirely by Christians.

WASHINGTON (ABP) -- A church-state watchdog group says a faith-based prison being proposed in Oklahoma would likely be unconstitutional

Americans United for Separation of Church and State wrote the Oklahoma Department of Corrections Nov. 18 advising the state not to send prisoners to what would be the first all-Christian prison in the country.

Formerly best known as the town used for filming the 1996 blockbuster movie "Twister," Wakita, Okla., has been back in the news lately with town leaders supporting the building of a 600-bed facility for men nearing the end of their prison terms. The prison would employ only Christians.

 
Opinion: Teaching laypeople about the honor of preaching the gospel

(ABP) -- If I were being completely honest, I would tell you that the whole idea was a little, tiny bit self-serving.

Having recently completed my doctor-of-ministry degree in preaching, I, strangely enough, managed to maintain my passion for the subject even through all the pain of slogging toward graduation. I love preaching; I feel an urgency about how it should and can be done; and, most of all, I love to talk about it with other people who feel the same.

 
LifeWay's 'Bible Navigator X' reaches out to video gamers
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) -- Attention video gamers: The Bible is coming to an Xbox near you.
 
New domestic-poverty stats a wake-up call, Baptist ethicists say
WASHINGTON (ABP) -- New government numbers revealing that, in 2008, nearly one in six Americans lived in households that struggled to afford food ought to be a wake-up call for Christians, according to two Baptist ethicists.
 
ACLU sues Tenn. school district for repeatedly promoting religion
The ACLU of Tennessee claims teachers and administrators routinely promote their religious beliefs to students at Sycamore High School.
ASHLAND CITY, Tenn. (ABP) -- Tennessee's chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit Nov. 16 accusing the Cheatham County Board of Education of ignoring more than four decades of court decisions interpreting the separation of church and state.
 
In Dallas, Justice Revival calls churches to unify and serve
Christian musician Jaci Valesquez leads worship during the Justice Revival in Dallas.
DALLAS (ABP) -- In the Dallas area, churches are participating in a new kind of revival -- one that takes notice of the 5,800 homeless people and the 89 percent of Dallas high school seniors who are not college- or career-ready when they graduate. And they are setting aside differences to follow God’s command to help the least of these.
 
awakeningweb.jpg
Is a new one taking place
outside the West?

Some observers of religion assert a socially transforming spiritual movement is sweeping the globe, resulting in 82,000 conversions to Christianity a day. But only 6,000 of them are in Europe and North America. . [Read More] ...

Read more New Voice stories:
• Bible guides revival of evangelical activism, Wallis says
• Texans celebrate Spirit's movement among Iranians
• Opinion: Great awakening versus cultural captivity

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