3.20.2017
Group gives Protestants competition for souls, but also an ally on religious freedom.
CHR Comment: Russian legal process typically distinguishes between traditional religions, such as Baptists and Lutherans, and non-traditional groups that are new to the country.
2.21.2017
An “average” church pastor is the president of the 2017 Southern Baptist Convention Pastors’ Conference.
CHR Comment: The article describes the election of a smaller church pastor to the presidency of the Pastor’s Conference and highlights differences between leadership from larger churches and from smaller churches, where most Southern Baptists attend.
Campaigns occasionally get compared to religious movements, so it’s not surprising to see the term ‘amen corner’ in greater use.
CHR Comment: The phrase refers to the practice in Baptist and similar traditions of affirming point in the pastor’s sermon by saying aloud, “Amen.” A related term would be “Preaching to the choir,” which is usually a well-spring of Amens.
Source: When things get tough, politicians look to the ‘amen corner’ – CSMonitor.com
CHR Comment: Baptist historian, Nathan A. Finn, provides an overview for this new history about the largest Protestant denomination in the United States and its growth globally.
Be prepared for a lot of denominational titles. I think that only the Pentecostals have more denominational organizations than the Baptists.
Source: Publications – Nathan A. Finn
The university now has more than 13,000 students on campus and claims c. 100,000 total through online programs. Stunning growth for a school founded in 1971. Liberty University: The rise of a really big conservative college – CSMonitor.com.
Notes on the pastor’s sermon and comments seem conservative theologically, emphasizing Christ’s resurrection. The end of the article gives some information about the historic congregation, which baptized its first African American member in 1803. Obama and family attend Easter service at historic Baptist church – CSMonitor.com.
Dr. Joel Lawrence, a Baptist minister, will speak in commemoration on Thursday, April 9, 2015. He is the author of a book on Bonhoeffer.
An essay by Baptist theologian John Aloisi on how he, as a modern Evangelical, thinks about the church fathers. When Aloisi writes that you would be hard pressed to find pre-Reformation Fathers saying we are saved by grace through faith alone, he might recall Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” The Fathers knew this passage and commented on it.
» Thinking about the Church Fathers.
Reviewer Mark McGinniss warns readers about problematic biblical interpretation in a recent novel.
church history review 